Today’s Solutions: November 23, 2024

Food waste is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and a misuse of valuable resources. While at-home strategies like meal planning and freezing greens can help your family cut down your food waste footprint, it’s not always easy to use up every last grocery item before they go bad. Fortunately, the new food sharing app Olio aims to help you cut down on community food waste by making it easy to share unwanted items with a neighbor in need. 

Created by UK-based entrepreneurs Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One, Olio lets you easily post food items you don’t want so neighbors can come to collect them. Whether you have a head of lettuce starting to wilt or forgot to buy a key ingredient for a recipe, Olio connects those with unwanted goods with those in need. 

The app has nearly 3.5 million users in 50 countries and, according to Clarke and Celestial-One, the app saw a big spike in users during the pandemic as more people cooking at home, and experiencing food insecurity. No money is exchanged on the platform. Like the Buy Nothing groups, we wrote about last week, it’s just a way to get unused goods to those who will put them to good use. The app prevents food from ending up in landfills, and it also provides nutritional resources to those struggling to put food on the table. 

So far, over 4 million items have been exchanged using Olio, preventing an estimated 3,775 tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere. Looking to expand, Olio has now partnered with UK grocery stores to redirect items near their expiration date to individuals and nonprofits in need. 

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

This Canadian didn’t want to fly from Germany to Canada—so he took a cargo ship

When Will Vibert’s European work visa was closing in on its expiration date, the Canadian was reluctant to travel back to Vancouver via plane. ...

Read More

Simple movement is connected to better brain health in older adults

It goes without saying that practicing regular exercise offers plentiful benefits for our overall health, but as we age, engaging in the same exercise ...

Read More

Passive cooling techniques reduce AC strain by up to 80 percent

In the summer months, many of us are of two minds: we’re dying to keep it cool, but we’re also dying not to spend ...

Read More

Making windows bird-friendly: a crash course on protecting our feathered friends

In 1990, Michael Mesure was on the way to a wildlife rehabilitation center. Among his passengers was a common yellowthroat, a colorful warbler that ...

Read More