Rescuing Food Destined For Landfill

It’s always disheartening to read about how much food never makes it to our plates. There are a number of reasons for this and the one I want to focus on here is fruit and vegetables that end up being diverted to landfill because they are the wrong size, shape or colour, or because there is a surplus. Up until the lockdown I didn’t even realise this was a thing. I had heard stories about misshapen veg but had assumed (wrongly as it turn out) that these were used in some other way in the food system.

There are a number of companies looking to address this by using the food that would otherwise end up in landfill. I chose Oddbox. I’d like to say this was an educated choice, made after painful research, but the reality is they were made aware to me via Facebook and I just went with them.

They deliver to your door once a week. You can choose whether you want a large or small delivery and whether you want just veg or fruit and veg. They also have add-ons you can order as things become available to them. They communicate with you via email and a letter that arrives with each delivery. As well as reading about the produce and potential recipes, you can rate each delivery.

It’s a great idea and I hope it turns into a more mainstream concept. So my action has been to become a customer of theirs and also to communicate with them about changes I’d like to see going forward. I guess at some point I’ll look at other providers and perhaps shift to one of them. But I like the vibe I get from the people at Oddbox and so want to support them. I’m going to stick with them for now while trying to influence their customer offer. I’ve shared below an example of how I’m trying to do that below, and fair play to them they are being very responsive.

23rd February 2021
Hello Oddbox team.

A couple of questions from me.

1. If you are rescuing food from landfill why don’t you put more in the box? It’s never full, and by reckoning the contents would cost roughly £6-7 to buy in a supermarket. The reason I ask is that I think the business model is brilliant but it’s not going to work for people who are on a tighter budget than we are because economically it doesn’t make sense. So assuming your costs are mostly logistics, why not pack more food in and create more value?

2. Why can’t we leave the box out for you to take away and re-use? Is this a Covid thing? We are trying to find uses for the boxes but they just keep coming!!

Thanks

24th February 2021
Hi Nick,

Thanks for your email, you raise some good points.

It's not as straightforward as comparing 'like for like' with the supermarkets. To give you a bit of background, the price of our service is not transferred directly into profit and we pay all of our farmers and growers a fair price (unlike the supermarkets). In going directly to farmers for our produce we make sure they receive fair payment.

We always look to help support our local community; since hunger and poverty is a big problem, especially in the winter, we donate up to 10% of all our weekly produce to food charities such as City Harvest and Felix Project to combat this. Together we have supplied enough food to provide over 100,000 meals to vulnerable people.

We also deliver directly to our customers' doors which makes helping the planet that much more convenient: this does mean that the price of our box includes delivery, packing and packaging costs too.

If you would like to delve into this more deeply, I can pass your thoughts onto our operations team for a more in-depth look at why we don't put more in the boxes - just let me know.

Regarding your old boxes, we are currently unable to collect and reuse them, due to the pandemic. It is of utmost importance to keep our drivers and customers safe and avoid any unnecessary risks at this time.

We would kindly ask that you recycle your box through your local scheme, or find a way to reuse your box.

Best wishes,

24th February 2021
Hi Rachel,

Thanks for the very full response. That’s really helpful to know.

I wasn’t comparing like for like with supermarkets (I buy the rest of my fruit and veg from a local greengrocer), but I take your point. My hope is that organisations like yours can be successful across the mass market. In the gap between people who rely on charity for food and relatively affluent people like me whose prime motivation is not price there are millions of people, many of whom I suspect would like to buy food more sustainably but simply can’t afford it (and perhaps don’t know how to). So anything that connects them with farmers more directly is a great thing. So I’m not coming at this as a complaint, more as an eco-citizen trying to help. Please feel free to pass my thoughts on to the operations team.

Re the boxes, that’s good to know. I’ll keep reusing the boxes until it’s safe enough for you to start taking them back.

Best wishes

24th February 2021
Hi Nick,

Thanks for getting back to me, I think this is a very interesting conversation for us to have, and I'm going to put this into our 'insights tracker' so that the relevant ODDBOX teams can all see it. I will get back to you with any relevant comments or solutions.

I believe it's hugely important for us as a company to ensure that we can help reduce food waste whilst at the same time making the fresh produce we've rescued available to as many people as possible at a truly affordable cost.

Thanks again for taking the time to write Nick, it's hugely appreciated.

All the best