The disposal of truckloads of apparently edible oranges at a Metro Vancouver transfer station is highlighting concerns about food waste.
Sonia Rivest, who works as a gardener, began to see the massive piles of oranges show up at the North Vancouver transfer station in early November.
“I just assumed it was fruit that either had gone bad or had some kind of biological issue,” she told Global News.
“It was shocking. Maybe even the next week I saw it again, and I was like, ‘OK, maybe there is a really big amount that went poor and could not be sold or used safely,’ again assuming there was a good reason this was happening.”
As far as Rivest has been able to discern, that wasn’t the case.
As first reported by the North Shore News, Rivest spoke with staff at the transfer station, who told her the oranges had reportedly ripened too early for the holidays and were being disposed of as a result.
“They said on average they at least get one dump truck a day … and then they said up to three a day,” she said.
“We were eating them and they were delightful, they were fine … We started actually taking like carrier bags, cloth shopping bags, and filling them up.”
In a statement, Metro Vancouver, which operates the transfer station, said the waste was “unfortunate,” but that “there are no rules against accepting edible items.”
The food waste problem in Metro Vancouver is neither new, nor small.
Metro Vancouver estimates 13,000 tonnes of edible, healthy food is thrown out every year in the region.
“I don’t think people thought about this 10 years ago,” Ian Tostenson, president and CEO of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservice Association said.
“Food waste in society is big. Food waste in restaurants is really big because sometimes we can’t determine what our demand is.”
Tostenson said restaurants in B.C. have increasingly been turning to companies and charities that try to divert waste from the landfill by connecting it with non-profits and charities.
Technology, he said, has allowed many to get food that remains unused in restaurant fridges that is nearing its expiration to get to those who need it quickly and safely.
Michelle Reining heads up Vancouver Food Runners, a charity focused on connecting food from donors like restaurants, grocery stores and caterers, with non-profit organizations that need it.
The group uses an app to connect food donors, food recipients and volunteer drivers together to make same-day deliveries.
“By the end of 2023 we will be looking to redirect over 1.2-million pounds (544,310 kilograms) of food to our non-profit partners, so that’s about a million-equivalent meals, and at the same time this is going to be mitigating a lot of CO2 from the environment as well,” she explained.
That delivery figure is up from about 235,000 pounds in 2020, the charity’s inaugural year, and represents a 47-per cent growth this year alone.
Reining said the key to the program’s success is the speed with which food waste can be connected with someone who needs it — whether it be a large organization serving the homeless like the United Gospel Mission or a small community fridge.
“Because we are able to pick up so quickly, most of our food is fresh,” she said.
“We are filling a big need; the demand from food businesses is increasing. I think there is a greater awareness of food recovery, of the importance of reducing food waste, and businesses are interested in getting involved.”
While the growing popularity of initiatives like the Vancouver Food Runners is a start, Rivest said she wants to see action from the government to prevent edible food from being thrown out.
She pointed to the example of France, which in 2015 passed a law banning supermarkets from destroying unsold food — requiring instead that it be used for charities, animal feed or compost.
“This time of year, this is when the food banks are all coming out asking for help, we hear about food poverty in Canada … there’s humanitarian aspect of we’re throwing away food that can be eaten,” she said.
“Why is Metro (Vancouver) accepting them? Because they have a choice. It’s not a bylaw, it’s not a rule, but they can turn them away.”
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