Grassroots Contributions to Sustainability and Carbon Reduction – Foodsharing as an Example

According to a study presented by the European Commission in 2016 20% of the food produced in the EU is wasted. For the EU-28 this means 88 million tonnes per year respectively 173 kilogram per person per year. A study published by the World Wildlife Fund estimates that by avoiding food waste the production of up to 21.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide could be avoided in Europe per year – thus more than e. g. the EU members Estonia, Lithuania or Slovenia produce per year. In order to both avoid this wasting of food as well as the carbon dioxide emissions linked with this wasting in Germany the grass roots initiative foodsharing was developed in 2012. Meanwhile almost 50,000 so-called foodsavers have become part of this initiative and the initiative has spread to Austria and Switzerland as well. These foodsavers do not engage in the so-called dumpster diving but instead get food that would be thrown away directly from cooperating supermarkets, bakeries and restaurants. Other than the so-called foodbanks they collect food after the best-before date as well. Since 2012 thereby 20,000 tonnes of food could be saved from waste. The paper wants to show how this saving of food is accomplished. Who participates in foodsharing and why? How is initiative organised? What is the broader political framework of the activities? And last but not least: what could be potentially adopted by other grass roots’ initiatives as well? Thereby the paper wants to show already existing and potential contributions of grass roots’ initiatives to sustainability and carbon reduction. The answers are given building both on a quantitative survey among foodsavers as well as on qualitative interviews with various individual actors in the foodsharing initiative.