Ever since I peeked into a green bin in Estonia - a novelty, which had just been put to use to organize waste management better - I realized that my tiny home country has a food waste problem.
I was very inspired by a German food waste-eliminating volunteer project called Foodsharing. I first saved heaps and heaps of food while living in Berlin, all thanks to that project. I realized that I should start such movement in Estonia. This is when my discovery of how much food gets wasted in Estonia began. This also marks the food-saving movement in Estonia.
What you will see below is not actually the main problem in Estonia's food waste. These are photos of food saved from commercial dumpsters. Though they show companies' inability to offload their unwanted food in a better manner, the businesses are not the culprit. Most of the food waste in Estonia comes from households. They have the largest share in food loss (41%) while the food trade sector counts for 24% of all wasted food. Also, it is easier to find discarded food in the bins of grocery stores as they throw away food daily and in large quantities. But if you think of the relation between the amount of stores to private households, then you see where the problem lies - there are just too many homes producing waste.
Become a subscriber to continue reading!
Every week we bring you news from the community and exclusive columns. We're relying on your support to keep going and invite you to subscribe.
Starting from $2.30 per week.
