Not all solutions have to be high tech.
MIT, arguably the most famous science and technology university in the United States, is fighting food waste with a camera. Inside MIT’s MediaLab, there’s a camera pointed at a counter. Above that counter is a button. Anyone can leave leftovers under the camera, push the button, and watch as food waste magically disappears down the throats of hungry college students.
Your office may have fewer hungry college students than MIT, but the food cam is still an excellent model for a low-cost solution to food waste.
At some point, your office will have a catered lunch or party. In order to ensure there’s enough for everyone, the organizer will order a little more than necessary. People won’t finish it. You can make sure that the extra food isn’t thrown out, and you don’t even need to buy a camera or button.
MIT’s food cam has been around since the nineties before social media and smartphones were common. Today, everyone already has a camera in their pocket. For this to work, you only have to take two free steps:
- Designate a space for leftover food
- Get the word out
If your office has a break room or kitchen space, designate a small section of the counter to leftovers. Hang a sign while people get used to the idea.
Create an email list dedicated to announcing the presence of free food in the office. Creating a food channel on Slack, if your office uses it, would work equally well. Make sure employees know that they are welcome to leftovers after meetings. They don’t even have to eat it at the office. Encourage them to take leftover catering meals home to their families.
Food waste is a major problem. That’s why there’s an abundance of research being done into new technologies aimed at preventing waste. Sometimes, though, simple solutions do the job.
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