Waste Not, Want Not

Much of the the food that ends up in our trash is actually far too good for the bin. This includes the 2,310,000,000 kg of food – a third of all food produced – that is thrown away annually in Switzerland.

What can you do?

• Eat regional, seasonal, and where possible unprocessed foods. That way, you can be sure as little residual waste as possible is generated.
• Buy only the quantity needed. Plan your meals ahead of time.
• Purchase produce in bulk. For example, Coop offers a customer sign-up plan for fruit and vegetable baskets, or buy from farmers direct.
• Trust your senses:  foods are generally still safe to consume past their best before date – at most they suffer some loss in taste, appearance or nutrients.  A quick sniff will tell you with certainty whether the food is still edible.  According to the Cantonal Laboratory in Zurich, food should no longer be consumed just until the expiry date.
• Extend the shelf life of fresh foods by optimal storage and cooling. There are many useful tips on the Utopia website regarding perfect storage without a refrigerator.
• Transform leftover foods by using them in tasty recipes. You can find inspiration in the recipe collection of “Too Good for the Bin”.

Additional Information

Food waste starts with misshapen or ‘ugly’ vegetables and fruits in the orchard that don’t conform to “norms,” to remnants from processing / food losses in transport, to the biggest wasters: private households. Households throw away nine times more food than retailers. And this means you too can prevent excessive food waste. Reducing wasted foods not only has a positive impact on your wallet, but also on our environment.

In Switzerland, according to the site foodwaste.ch, along with disposed foods, the equivalent of the following has been wasted:

• An area of quality, arable land 15 times the size of Lake Lucerne.
• Enough water to fill six bathtubs – per person per day.
• A lot of unnecessary CO₂ – more than a third of what our cars emit each year.

Further information and tips covering food waste and food rescue can be found on the websites Foodwaste, Federal Office for the Environment or Food Sharing.

Questions about Climate Action?

Climate telephone

Do you have specific questions regarding climate action? Phone our climate experts, Bosco & Co, from 17:00 to 19:00 and Fridays from 12:00 to 17:00.

Tel.: 052 203 02 32

E-Mail

No time to telephone? No problem. Kindly send us an email at: klimafragen@myblueplanet.ch

Bosco Büeler

Bosco has decades of experience in architecture, building biology, climate protection and mobility. As co-founder of myblueplanet, and an active climate protector, is he our go-to expert for specific approaches pertaining the climate crisis.

Mehr über Bosco

• 1952 geboren in Flawil SG, Vater von drei Söhnen und neben vier Berufsabschlüssen seit Jahrzenten als Architekt und Baubiologe tätig
• Gastvorleser und Berater bei diversen Bauprojekten in 20 verschiedenen Ländern
• Tätig für mehrere Projekte im humanitären Bereich im Auftrag der Schweizer Regierung
• Mitgründer von mehreren Schweizer Organisationen: Schweizerisches Institut für Baubiologie (heute baubioswiss), Genossenschaft Information Baubiologie
• Generalsekretär der Baubiologie-Weltorganisation
• Konzeptleiter beim Neubau des Bundesamtes für Statistiken in Neuenburg (1991)
• Projektleiter/Mitarbeiter bei 200 weiteren Architekturprojekten
• Mitbegründer der Auto Teilet Genossenschaft (ATG), heute in neuer Form als Carsharing-Unternehmen Mobility bekannt
• Mitbegründer von myblueplanet
• Aktuell konzentrieren sich seine Tätigkeiten auf Expertisen im Bau- und Energiesektor und einige Dozententätigkeiten

Die Baubiologie wendet konsequent ökologische und gesundheitsverträgliche Methoden an im Bereich Architektur und Bau und hat sich in den letzten 30 Jahren zu einer komplett neuen Branche entwickelt. Dabei sind hunderte Firmen und tausende von Arbeitsplätzen entstanden. Bosco war selber bei dutzenden von Firmen Berater. Seit 1992 ist die Baubiologie eine Ausbildung mit eidgenössisch anerkanntem Fachausweis.