Sweden's Food Waste

On the fourth day of my ended summer school, Mr. Erikkson who has been dealing with the food wastage in grocery stores research in Sweden presented his findings. Well, it is actually 'not so surprising' that Sweden's food wastage is enormous, just like other developed well-off countries. And guess what? Households waste ruled all (63% among other wastes):

Screencapped from Mr. Erikkson's presentation in GCUA Summer School 2014

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According to FAO (2011), every year, 1/3 of the annual food production ends up in the trash. That equals to 1.3 billion tons which is enough to feed 4 times of 868 million starving people! How crazy is that?! During his presentation, Mr. Erikkson mentioned that the main causes of the food wastage are: (1) short best before dates, (2) bad orders, (3) empty shelf not ”allowed”, (4) insufficient quality of delivered goods, and (5) legal requirements. He suggested several ways to valorize food waste:

Screencapped from Mr. Erikkson's presentation in GCUA Summer School 2014

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Since Swedes are wasting their food a lot (*I even saw by myself a barrel of completely fine fruits being dumped in one of the grocery stores in Uppsala; see the picture ON THE RIGHT), the government indeed use their loaf to turn those enormous waste into something useful. Take your time and watch this Youtube video below about how this country turns waste into electricity, heat, steam and cooling water. FYI, Sweden even has to import waste from its neighboring countries (even UK and Africa) to meet the high demand of energy. It means that, the waste management in Sweden is very efficient thus it can be easily handle its own waste, even helping other countries (a.k.a making other countries to pay for their wastes management to Sweden) to taking care of their wastes. 

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Above all, food waste is a shame for human kind and for the environment. Thus, we must  encourage ourselves to reduce wastes, reuse leftovers and redistribute surplus (FAO campaign, 2011). Even though Sweden has been very effective and efficient in handling its waste, but changing Swedes perceptions about still-edible food is important. Food is not only about aesthetics, it is also about psychologically bonds with other people who might need it but don't have any privilege to reach it.

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