Food waste is a problem in Sask.; a new app could help change that
CBC
Tim Shultz carefully places three cobs of corn, some fennel, muffins and a lollipop into a brown paper bag.
The food has been available on the shelves on Shultz's Local Market grocery outlet in Regina's Warehouse District for a while. And although it's been replaced by newer, fresher food, it's still good enough to consume.
The food will instead be sold at a discounted price on an app called Too Good To Go — a platform that helps reduce food waste from grocery retailers and restaurants.
The app launched in Canada in 2021, but just came to Regina and Saskatoon in August.
Shultz is one of around 60 retailers in the province who use the app.
"Waste is something that has always bothered me," said Shultz. "I just hate throwing out food and then, obviously there's a dollar value associated with that as well."
He estimates that even after he would give some still-edible food to a commercial kitchen in his building to create soups and sandwiches — and to a farm where goats would consume the food — he would still throw out between 25 and 50 pounds of food per week.
Shultz and other businesses that use the app can put their packages of random food items on the app to sell to customers looking for discounted food — usually at about one-third of the regular price.
Sarah Soteroff, a spokesperson for Too Good To Go, told CBC the app has seen significant uptake in the two to three weeks since it launched in the province Aug. 3.
"We've already saved 1,000 meals," said Soteroff. "We're always welcoming more [businesses]. If you're a grocery store, if you're a bakery, if you sell prepared goods, anywhere that … has surplus food can be sold on the app."
A 2020 report from the federal government showed Saskatchewan produced the third most food waste per capita in Canada — at 191 kilograms.
Joanne Fedyk, executive director of the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council, said food is harmful to the environment once it hits the trash bin.
"If it ends up in the landfill where there's no oxygen, then it produces methane," said Fedyk. "That is one of the more harmful greenhouse gasses."
Methane is produced when bacteria in the organic matter break down and are piled under dirt in landfills. A 2020 inventory of greenhouse gasses in Canada found the waste industry as a whole produces 28 per cent of methane emissions.
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