After collecting 276 anti-waste baskets

For crying out loud! I hate wasting (except water for the shower because I love that). Food is a priority on my list, and I haven’t met anyone who thought otherwise: no one wants to waste food. And I was happy to discover an application that prevents stores from throwing away this food.

If you are prepared to receive any eatable shop product, then such anti-waste basket is for you. It should be consumed shortly and that’s why they are available for discounts: it will soon become waste products. The basket value is discounted, ranging officially from 50% to 66%. As I said, no one likes to spoil, so baskets are often fuller than the advertised price.

We started slowly with two baskets per week. It was nice, you get some satisfaction and eat something you wouldn’t buy. It avoids to ask itself what to cook; the next perishable food must be cooked.

After some weeks, we started taking a lot of baskets. I mean, a lot. Like 5 to 9 a week. Some gamification comes in: you see how much CO2 emissions avoided, how much money you saved, and the basket counter goes up. Our food cost dropped by 50%, and gave baskets to our friends and family. Everyone was happy. We’ve stocked up on coffee for a year and a half.

Then we noticed that having a balanced diet with random products is complicated. Feeling like you’re eating something you don’t need. On the contrary, we felt the need for “green” food. Indeed we ate mostly processed dairy, meat and prepared foods.

So for our own health, it had to stops. We put a stop. Since weeks we know take ~ 1.5 basket per week in 2024 and that’s better. It’s healthier and everyone else can get one basket when they want to. It is now an integral part of our diet, but a more balanced one.

By the way, the app is named Too Good To Go, but you can find other anti-waste initiative such as Food sharing in Germany.