PRESS RELEASESGiant sculptures installed on London’s South Bank

Three sculptures have been erected in London’s iconic South Bank calling on Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to finally take action on food waste.

Created by surplus food app and social impact company, Too Good To Go, the installation is available to view until 29 October and features giant sculptures of three of the UK’s most wasted food items: potatoes, milk and bread.

Demonstrating the scale of our food waste problem, the installation highlights the fact that 40% of all food is wasted globally, and that this food waste is responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than aviation (2.5%), plastics (3.8%) and deforestation (2.2%) combined.*

And while the government has put legally binding regulations in place for all three of these important areas, food waste has been ignored up until now. That’s despite a recent survey conducted by Too Good To Go which found that 45% of Brits believe it is the government’s responsibility to reduce food waste.**

COP26 offers an unmissable opportunity to enact real change in our food systems towards reducing food waste. But as it stands, there is currently no agenda for food waste discussions at the global conference.

To change this, Too Good To Go has launched a petition calling on the government to take food waste seriously by:

- Making food waste and food systems part of the agenda at COP26;

- Enshrining into law a 50% reduction of food waste by 2030, as part of the UK’s Net Zero ambitions.

“It’s staggering that despite all the research to prove that food waste is causing climate change, it’s nowhere to be seen on the government’s agenda for COP26 or beyond. When you compare this to other climate issues like plastics, deforestation and aviation which are all getting the due attention they deserve, it begs the question: why isn’t food wasted taken as seriously?“ says Jamie Crummie, co-founder of Too Good To Go.

“Our hope is that this installation will kickstart some long overdue conversations about our global food waste crisis and inspire the government to step up by establishing tangible and concrete solutions in law, before it’s too late.”

Too Good To Go lets people buy surplus food and drink from pubs, restaurants, retailers and producers to stop it from going to waste. Consumers simply download the free Too Good To Go app and search for nearby businesses with unsold produce. They then purchase a ‘Magic Bag’, collect it at an allotted time and enjoy it.

For more information on Too Good To Go visit www.toogoodtogo.co.uk.

ENDS

Press enquiries: press@toogoodtogo.co.uk

*Global food waste source: WWF Driven To Waste, 2021.
Aviation source: Our World In Data 2020
Plastics source: Imperial London, 2020
Deforestation source: Our World In Data 2020
**All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. This survey was carried out in association with YouGov, across 15 countries: the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, France, the United States, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Norway, and Spain. A minimum of 1000 respondents were gathered per market, and a total of 17,824 people responded across all markets. Respondents were surveyed online and segmented by age, gender, child(s) ages, and awareness of food waste as the number one way to reduce climate change. The survey ran from 08th - 20th July 2021.

Notes to Editors

ABOUT TOO GOOD TO GO

Too Good To Go has a simple mission: to make sure all food gets eaten, not wasted.

In 2016, a group of entrepreneurs witnessed restaurant staff throwing away fresh food. The food’s only problem? It hadn’t sold in time, and no one was around to take it off the restaurant’s hands. The group pioneered a seamless solution: an app that lists businesses’ unsold food so local diners can find, buy and enjoy it.

Now, thousands of Magic Bags are rescued from businesses such as supermarkets, restaurants, and bakeries every day. The success of the app powers Too Good To Go’s wider efforts to drive a food waste movement, working with schools, industries and governments to build a planet-friendly food system.

Too Good To Go by numbers:

17 countries

97 million meals saved globally

46 million app installs globally

119,000 partner stores globally

2020 became a registered B-Corp

Find out more at www.toogoodtogo.co.uk, or visit us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.