Donations is a hot topic in the world of food waste. Should retailers be able to conveniently avoid their waste problem by pushing it further down the value chain – or is it an important opportunity to give back to the local community?

As in many instances, the Nordic countries seem to have different views on food waste donations. In Norway, the VAT has been removed when donating to food banks, which has helped accelerate food being put to better use. In other countries, the receiving organizations actually have to pay for the food. Or should they rather get paid for picking it up? Should we increase the number of food banks or find others way to redistribute resources in our societies?

It seems like there needs to be some harmonization effort.

Matt Homewood discovered that supermarkets were wasting tons of edible food in their dumpsters every day, and through dumpster diving he started documenting this on his Instagram account An Urban Harvester. Today, he is also Head of Sustainability and responsible for the Danish market at Throw no more, a Norwegian food waste platform.

He is critical of the retailers’ inability to use discounts to actually sell the food before its expiry date, which he believes is a much better solution than throwing it away – or donating to charity.  

Anja Bakken Riise from the Norwegian organization Future in Our Hands also raised the topic in a panel discussion.

Anja Bakken, Riise from the Norwegian organization Future in Our Hands