Coop has been working with the Too Good To Go since 2017. This is an anti-food wastage app. People can use it to buy bags containing perishable goods. These are then collected from their local supermarket. In Denmark, this has already saved 1 million meals from being tossed away. That's equal to about 10,926 flights between Copenhagen and London, a saving of 2,5 tons of CO2.
Signe D. Frese, Coop's CSR director, is pleased with this partnership. "Our customers are committed to preventing food wastage. This cooperation with Too Good To Go was, therefore, a very logical step for us. It's a joint project that's really useful. It's great to see that both our customers and branches immediately embraced the concept. That's also the reason why more and more of our stores are participating. So, more food is being saved."
At Too Good To Go Denmark, director Heidi Boye is full of praise for Coop's efforts: "Saving one million meals is an impressive milestone. Coop was the first supermarket chain to take part in this project. Their participating stores now account for one-fifth of the total amount of food saved. That's in the Too Good To Go app's four years existence. So, obviously, we're delighted with the collaboration."
What happens is, the employees of the more than 400 Coop branches check the shelves every day. They look for items that are approaching their best-before date. These include bread, to-go salads, or fruit and vegetables. Now, because of this partnership, these goods won't be thrown away. Instead, they're placed into paper bags. Too Good To Go app users can then collect these from the store.
Coop's included the need to reduce food wastage as much as possible in its 2030 strategy. To achieve this, Coop will do several things. These include training employees and donating non-perishable products. They will continue and expand its collaboration with Too Good To Go and also optimize store purchases.
The Too Good To Go app has almost 2 million users in Denmark. The company is, however, active in 15 countries. It was founded in 2016. Worldwide, it now has now 23 million users. They've collectively save in excess of 41 million meals. That's a saving of 104,000 tons of CO2.
Source: via.ritzau.dk