The fridges fighting FOOD WASTE

Every time we bin edible food, we contribute to climate change. So could a new network of community fridges help?

Between 25-30% of the food we produce globally is wasted each year, and this accounts for as much as 10% of the total greenhouse gas emissions humans are responsible for. Planning meals carefully can help reduce food waste at home, and food sharing apps such as Olio or Too Good To Go help redistribute food that would otherwise be binned. But there’s also a growing network of ‘community fridges’ that are taking things a step further by setting up food sharing hubs in local community spaces.

‘Community fridges are run by community groups as a solution to food waste,’ explains Ellen Rutherford, head of food at Hubbub, the organisation that co-ordinates the sharing network. ‘Anybody who has good food that would otherwise go to waste can share it with the fridge, whether that’s local supermarkets, restaurants or individuals who live nearby.’

That means that if you find yourself with unopened packaged food (such as cheese, yogurt, salad or fruit juice) that you know you won’t use before it spoils, you can take it to your local community fridge to share, along with fresh fruit and vegetables.

‘Community fridges are open to anyone irrespective of need, and there’s no need to register first,’ Ellen says. Roughly half of the groups of volunteers that run an existing fridge also run other food-related activities, such as a community growing area or cooking workshops for example.

There are already 450 community fridges across the UK and, with funding from Co-op, the aim is to reach 500 this year. In 2022 alone, Hubbub estimates that the community fridge network prevented 7,100 tonnes of food from going to waste and saved the equivalent of 8,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide in greenhouse gas emissions.

Search for a community fridge near you or find out how to set one up at hubbub.org.uk/the-community-fridge.