In a suburb of Saarbrücken, a team from the ARD business magazine Plusminus accompanies the garbage collection. Organic waste will be picked up today. The bins are well filled. Spontaneous checks show that in many of them there are whole loaves of bread next to leftover food and fruit waste.
Signs of a consumer society in which there is obviously too much. Everything is quickly ground up in the garbage truck's throat, prepared for later disposal. What the garbage collectors see is also reflected in the statistics.
Households throw away the most
Since 2019, around eleven million tonnes of food waste has ended up in the trash every year. Of this, 58 percent goes to private households, almost 6.3 million tons. Gastronomy causes 16 percent, food processing 17, retail seven and agriculture two percent of the waste.
This is precisely why the last cabinet under Chancellor Angela Merkel set the course for a reduction in food waste. In 2019, Julia Klöckner, as Federal Minister of Agriculture, presented a national strategy to avoid waste. The goal: to halve the amount of waste by 2030 using voluntary measures. Not much was achieved.
Trade happy with own progress
The German Food Association is also involved in strategies to reduce food waste. He points to initial successes in his area. According to spokeswoman Manon Struck-Pacyna, food losses have been reduced by 25 percent at the participating retail chains as well as wholesalers and retailers. That is quite a considerable number. And we are working together with politicians to make things even better.
A reduction of 25 percent sounds like a lot at first. However, since trade only produces seven percent of all food waste, a quarter of this does not even correspond to two percent of the total amount of waste.
France: model with carrot and stick
Neighboring countries like France, on the other hand, have been pushing for years to oblige retailers to hand over excess food. The organization "Banque Alimentaire" is one of the establishments that accepts these goods. It now provides care for many socially needy people across the country.
The organization is comparable to the German Tafel, but sees itself more as part of a social program. In the Bas-Rhin department near Strasbourg alone, 68,000 people are regularly supplied with food that would otherwise be thrown away. There are 2.4 million people in need across France.
Every day, the organization's volunteers travel to wholesalers, supermarkets and bakeries and pick up excess food there. The products are sorted centrally and later picked up by aid organizations such as the French Croix Rouge or Caritas and finally distributed.
Food waste in France almost halved
The concept has been implemented in France for ten years. Retailers have now internalized it, but can also derive financial benefit from the program. Jean Serrats, president of the regional body in Strasbourg, points out that every time a store gives something to the Banque Alimentaire, it has the right to receive a tax discount of 60 percent on the value of the goods. It is therefore worthwhile for companies not to throw away food, but to give it away.
The corresponding law to combat food waste was introduced in 2016. At that time, the amount of waste per capita in France was 108 kilos; today it is only 58 kilos per head of the population. For comparison: In Germany, food waste has remained unchanged at 75 kilos per capita for years and is therefore significantly higher than in the neighboring country.
Would the French model be a role model for Germany? The Federal Ministry of Agriculture says it is not relying on coercion and wants to stick to voluntary food donations. Good cooperation has also been achieved with the food banks. Around 1.5 million people receive regular care every year.
Large packages contribute to the high amount of waste
Since the majority of waste in Germany occurs in households, the question arises as to why they cannot avoid more food waste? The Berlin food scientist Nina Langen sees one reason in the pack sizes, which are still far too large.
She explains that 50 percent of what people throw away are fruits and vegetables. In supermarkets, this is often not sold individually, but rather only packaged in containers. For example, just an onion, a small amount of potatoes or a single banana are often not available in discount stores. Even when it comes to meat and cheese, there are often only large packages available. The result is more waste because too much remains and spoils, says Langen.
Are voluntary measures enough?
Langen co-initiated a project called Miss Mit. The goal: Consumers measure their waste and document it in a diary in order to avoid waste. This worked successfully for the participants, but the response rate was extremely low, says Langen: only 250 completely completed data sets were returned.
It worked better with an app that reminds participants to register via a push message. Half of these messages were opened. In order to achieve a real effect, you have to activate people again and again, the researcher sums up.
The German approach, which relies solely on voluntary action, has so far barely reduced food waste. The French model shows that with mandatory measures and the involvement of trade, a real reduction can certainly be achieved.
