Food waste is one of the greatest crises facing humanity today and Ireland is as guilty an offender as any country in the world.
10% of all greenhouse gas emissions are derived from food waste – that is more than the entire aviation industry.
2.5 billion tonnes of food is wasted annually, all while 830 million people go hungry every day.
From a purely financial perspective, food waste costs the global economy $1.2 trillion every year.
“Too Good To Go” is the world’s largest anti-food waste app that is helping customers and businesses to rescue unsold food from going in the bin.
The app lets people buy surplus food and drink from restaurants, grocery stores, pubs, cafes and producers to stop it from going to waste.
It is quite simple to use as well: download the free app and search for their nearby store with unsold food. Then simply purchase a ‘Surprise Bag’ at a fraction of the original retail price, collect it at an allotted time and enjoy.
Too Good To Go launched in Dublin in October 2021, with Limerick, Galway and Cork following shortly after. Since then, the app has garnered over 200,000 registered users and partnered with nearly 1,000 food businesses up and down the country, including major names like Spar and Applegreen.
Since coming to the country, the app has saved more than 100,000 bags of food from going to waste in Ireland each year.
From a business standpoint, the app not only helps businesses to reduce their waste and help the environment, it also turns surplus food into extra income.
The app began to work with locations across Kildare in Auguest of 2022 and has been gradually adding locations here in Laois.
Portlaoise, Portarlington and Mountmellick are so far the only towns with participating outlets, but the hope is that more of our wonderful food businesses will get involved.
Current locations include Applegreen in Mountmellick; Aldi and Solas in Portarlington; and Aldi, The Wandering Elk, and others in Portlaoise.
Too Good To Go is also available at several nearby locations, including Roscrea, Athy, Tullamore and Carlow.
SEE ALSO – Located on the edge of Laois and making a huge impact by keeping Irish alive – Gaelscoil Shlí Dála
