Have Your Cake And Eat It Too With Too Good To Go.

Source: Too Good To Go

The most overlooked contributor to climate change is food waste which is responsible for up to 11 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The problem is not simple to fix, mainly because waste occurs at every level of the food supply chain.

Every year the UK throws away over 10 million tonnes of food, costing us over £17 billion. The hospitality sector is one of the most significant contributors to food waste, throwing away one million tonnes of food annually, equivalent to one in every six meals produced.

Too Good To Go is an increasingly popular service that is helping to reduce restaurant and supermarket waste by connecting customers to surplus food at heavily reduced rates. Users can download the free app and search for nearby restaurants, retailers and producers that offer ‘Magic Bags’, which are filled with surplus food. Users will be given an allocated time to collect their Magic Bag, which usually retails for less than a third of the original retail price.

Since To Good To Go launched in 2016, UK businesses have sold over 15 million Magic Bags of excess food, and globally over 45 million meals have been saved from waste. In the UK, the platform works in unison with 22,000 restaurants, cafes and supermarkets to offer the 9 million users, known as ‘waste warriors’, products at a fraction of the original price. Together the app reportedly manages to save one meal per second, and with the constant rise in the cost of living, it will only continue to expand.

Since its launch in the UK, many places in Glasgow city centre have signed up. There are bigger chains like Costa Coffee with multiple pick-up locations around the city, Tim Hortons on Argyle Street and YoSushi on West George Street. There are also supermarket chains such as Marks and Spencer’s, The Co-op and Morrisons, alongside smaller independent Glasgow Businesses such as Deanston Bakery and Marble Global Buffet.

The app's only downfall is that when you purchase your Magic Bag, you don’t know exactly what food you will receive until you collect it. Each business also has a limited number of bags to offer daily, which are often sold out soon after being added. Hence, there is no guarantee you’ll be able to get one from your favourite restaurant. However, this is only a small price for those looking to save food and waste from an app that does so much good.