BonApp feeds on zero waste movement with community fridge network
Founder says households in Canada account for 47% of food waste
A new player in Montreal's zero waste scene is installing fridges around the city so citizens can give back and help reduce the impact of food waste on the environment.
The founder of the web-based BonApp, Genvieve Rousseau, said she was inspired by places like Germany and the U.K. where apps connect people for food sharing.
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"I realized that food waste is a huge problem and I tried to understand how we, as individuals, can come up with a solution," Rousseau told CBC Montreal's Daybreak. "We all have a bag of carrots, or something, that we're not using."
She said that in North America there's so much abundance that people tend to buy too much produce because bulk buying is cheap, but then people don't know what to do with all that food.
"We as households waste 47 per cent of the food, with two-thirds being fruits and veggies," Rousseau said.
BonApp is in its pilot phase and has five drop-off points in places like universities and coffee shops where people can bring their unpeeled fruits and veggies, as well as unopened food items.
By September more fridges will be installed and Rousseau aims to eventually have a system which documents in real time their contents as people drop things off and others collect.
Rousseau will also be offering workshops where people can learn to cook all of their food since she says a lot of people tend to throw out things like stems and pulp without thinking about how they can use them.
with files from CBC Montreal's Daybreak