My aim with this post is to make you feel uncomfortable. And to rally you to a cause.
For reasons I can’t comprehend, much of the planet (America aside) gets weirded out by the idea of asking a waiter for uneaten food to be put in a container to be consumed later. So much so they’ve got it into their heads that they’re illegal or unsafe.
But you know what? It ain’t any of this. It’s vanity. We think walking out of a restaurant with a little bag is a crook look. We think leaving food on our plate is a mark of sophisticated restraint. We think scraping together food for seconds is scabby.
My response? Get over it, get real and get responsible.
- Australians toss $8 billion worth of edible food every year.
- Food waste is a bigger pollutant than cars and industry.
- Consumers are the biggest contributors to food waste. Because we’re vain. This is unfathomable and unforgiveable.
Worse yet, apparently less and less of us are asking for doggy bags, with Gen Y tagged as the biggest food wasters – 26 per cent say it’s too embarrassing to ever ask for a doggy bag.
Most people I know don’t even save their leftovers at home. It’s easier to scrape them into a bin than to get creative and