Replate: first-rate or not so great?
June 14th, 2007 by Jonathan
A bunch of San Francisco “troublemakers who make good things happen in culture and commerce” are drawing much-needed attention to food waste. Language in Common recently launched a fascinating web campaign urging people to leave their unwanted doggie bags atop trash cans for hungry folks to eat.
Essentially, they’ve taken an observed behavior and made it a verb: Replate. Hmm…
Five things I like about Replate:
1. It gets people thinking and talking about food waste and hunger
2. We send too much food to landfills and this will help some.
3. The clever logo I wish I’d thought of.
4. The sentiment.
5. It’s catchy, simple and spreading virally as you read this. Nice use of the web.
Five things I don’t like about Replate:
1. Calling this activism sets the bar really low.
2. I’d rather encourage people to order less and restaurants to stop serving gigantic portions.
3. Why not just give the food to a homeless person? More of a sure thing and promotes interaction.
4. Great for big cities, but what about elsewhere? Any other ideas?
5. In San Francisco, Replaters should go one step further: leave leftovers atop food waste bins (for convenience in case it rots).
Stumble it! | Posted in Food Safety, Food Recovery, Waste Stream |
[…] Here’s a few threads of the conversation: Bake Town StumbleUpon Wasted Food […]
Hi Jonathan, I just came across your post from replate’s website. I posted my reaction, basically not in favor, to this idea on my blog. I agree with the five things you don’t like. On the whole I think this is cheap activism, which doesn’t even deserve the “activism” label.
I hear you, Laura. But I will say I’ve come to appreciate how much attention a well-conceived, snappy-looking site like Replate.org can bring to an issue. And they do seem pretty flexible to all ideas. So it’s up to us folks to create a less cheap activism.