A Spanish city near Bilbao is picking up the trend to avoid wasting food by setting up a pioneering project.
In Galdakao, home to 29,000 residents, there is now a large refrigerator, Spain’s first “solidarity fridge” where residents and restaurants can place leftover or unused food which might otherwise been discarded.
What’s in the fridge can be taken by anyone who wants it.
The strict rules for donating food cover no raw fish, meat or eggs; goods must be before their use-by date; and homemade items must be labeled to include the preparation date.
The scheme was influenced by concern at the amount of food being binned by supermarkets and an internet search which discovered a network of shared fridges in Berlin.
“I would guess we’ve saved between 200 and 300kg from the rubbish bin,” said organiser Álvaro Saiz, 36.
“This isn’t charity. It’s about making use of food that would otherwise end up in the bin,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who takes it – Julio Iglesias could stop by and take the food – at the end of the day it’s about recovering the value of food products and fighting against waste.”
Nevertheless, hopeful visitors to the community fridge have included those in need as well as all sorts of others.
With all the needed paperwork in place, volunteers maintain the stock and discard things which have passed their use-by dates.
Last week the city of Murcia in the southeast set up its own solidarity fridge, becoming the second city in Spain to do so. Saiz said he has been contacted by other communities keen to try their own schemes.
Contributors have included a growing number of local restaurants which have expressed relief at having a way to avoid throwing out food which was still fine to eat.
