Any ideas?
August 2nd, 2007 by Jonathan
Yesterday we were talking about Indiana, today it’s Brazil. Earlier this week I got an e-mail from a friendly Sao Paulo industrial design student named Luiz Augusto Moreira. Luiz tells me that food waste is a serious problem in Brazil, as well.
Banco de Alimentos, a non-govermental organization that recovers food for the hungry, says 39 million kilograms of food are wasted every day. Meanwhile, 75 million Brazilians are hungry, more than double the U.S. figure–and Brazil has a third fewer people than the U.S!
As an aside, if there were a way to do so online, I’d have already purchased one of these hot t-shirts benefiting Banco de Alimentos.
Anyway, Luiz is interested in developing a product that would reduce food waste. I told him I’d post his query for discussion. So…any ideas for this well-intentioned student? It can be for anywhere in the food chain, from farms to family dinners. Submit your thoughts as comments below.
Because Luiz mentioned that he was intrigued by the Replate scheme that urges people to leave their leftovers atop trash cans for the hungry to eat, here’s my (far-fetched) idea: Since the main concerns with Replate are the food going bad sitting out in the sun and the potential mess when rodents get into the food, how about designing a sealed, refrigerated trash-top box. It’d be solar powered, of course! I’m picturing a pizza box size container with a door on top to insert donations. In keeping with Replate’s name, the box could even feature an affixed white plate inside.
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Hi everybody…it´s nice to know that my concern about food waste has been posted in Jonathan´s site. The amount of food wasted daily in Brazil is around 39 million kilograms. This is absurd that we have more than 75 million people that do not have enough food. Brazil is the fourth world´s biggest food producer. Does this make any sense?
As a designer i am trying to create a product than can change this situation. Any help is more than welcome!
A solar powered trash can-top mini-fridge? I like the idea, but I have to wonder who would clean it.
I certainly think that a cleaner / easier way to compost leftovers is a start. The food is still “wasted” technically, but at least it would go into a nice backyard flowerbed instead of the landfill. Everyone recycles now — why can’t they compost as well?
The problem is time. Food waste in our house usually happens when it’s too late. We generally save our leftovers, but if we don’t get to them in time they go bad and the only thing that would want them is the compost heap.
On a larger scale — at restaurants, etc. the key seems to be access and distribution. If they have a predictable, low-cost way to get food they don’t need to people who need it, I expect they’d use it.
On the super large-scale that Luiz describes, perhaps it’s a matter of food storage and transport? I’m fairly uninformed on this topic, but I would assume that part of the problem is that the countries that have excess food cannot efficiently get it to the countries that need it. Are there products that could make it easier to transport (e.g., make food lighter-weight) and/or longer-lasting (i.e., some kind of refrigeration).
I admire Luiz’s goal. I think the biggest thing at this point is awareness (thanks, Jon!). If minimizing food waste can become trendy and then expected (like recycling) I would think you could see some real change.
Picking up where Brian left off, I think the answer is clear. If we want to make mimizing food waste trendy, we need to get celebrities involved. Hey, it worked with the hybrid car, why not food waste?
Anyone know Tim Robbins’ agent? Maybe we can get Matt Damon down for the cause. You can take a guy out of Cambridge, but you can’t take the Cambridge out of the guy.
Then again, if Brad and Angelina are on board, we’ll have coverage 24-7. I can see it now: Brad and Angelina leaving a restaurant with matching styrafoam take-home boxes as the paparazzi snap picture after picture.
One other thought: cool-looking take-home boxes. If you had some stripes, polka dots or lively solid colors other than white, that would make diners (celebritites or non) more apt to take home their leftovers.
One thing worth considering, is that it’s not only about food waste, but the cause. I won’t get into the whole overpopulation scenario, but I know, that you know where I am going with this; in short that over consumption leads to wasted food- even if the food is eaten by its buyer, one sometimes has to wonder, “did I need that extra box of kung-pao all to myself?” I’m not saying that having an apetite is a crime, if it were I myself would be guilty, I am only saying that we live in a society of excess, where less is nothing, and more is just above less.