Food waste is a major problem around the world. Consumers are often concerned with the look of the product they are buying, which leaves suppliers discarding the majority of their fresh produce resulting in millions of tonnes worth of food waste being sent to landfill.

Sure, some donate the food to local organisations, but others just tip it straight into bins.

In Leeds, UK, you can now pop into a supermarket that only sells food waste. The goods don’t have a set price, but the store rather allows you to “pay what you feel” by either offering your time, money, or skills.

The stock comprises of various donations of surplus food from supermarkets and local business, including cafes, restaurants and even food banks.

Project founder Adam Smith said the idea began about three years ago, when a cafe offering meals produced from food waste opened in Armley. There are now more than 120 similar cafes around the world.

The Real Junk Food Project has a warehouse on the Grangefield Industrial Estate in Pudsey, and receives on average between two and 10 tonnes of food at its warehouse every day.

Usually we donate it [leftover food] to local schools but over the summer we ended up with all this surplus and we wondered how we would get rid of it.

We moved it to one part of the warehouse, put a notice up on social media asking people to come and get it, and it just went mad.

We ask that you pay what you feel in time, money and skills. We do have people coming with the intention of paying and if it carries on like it does, it will pay for the cost of the warehouse.

Here’s Adam talking about his project:

So when are we going to get something like this in South Africa? You could be the face of a game changer if you do.

[source:bbc]