From vegetable stands to bakeries, cafes to supermarkets and various eateries, food waste is an endemic problem.

Self-described 'London magazine for ethical eating', The Jellied Eel, in Cleaning up London's leftovers looks at efforts to fill stomachs not garbage dumps

Amongst them are temporary 'food waste' restaurants, a new iteration of the pop-up concept.

One example quoted in the piece is following:

"The charity Wastewatch, in conjunction with government-funded project Love Food Hate Waste and the West London Waste Authority, is holding four ‘Feed the 1000’ events with local universities, feeding 1000 people for free using the same amount of food as the average family wastes each year."

The group FoodCycle operates community cafes year-round and also shares their Surplus Apple Cake recipe.

Having firsthand experience of how much food is left on plates at restaurants at the end of a meal I was intrigued by another idea quoted in the piece:

"East London Nigerian restaurant, Obalende Suya Express, which famously introduced a £2.50 fee (donated to Oxfam) if diners didn’t clear their plate."

Sounds like the equivalent of carbon offset as applied to travel.

Filling stomachs not garbage dumps for Green Day # 209

Previously: Gringos Welcome at Green Conference of the Americas, MiaGreen 2012, Miami, Jan 26-27