A canteen in Toulouse.

-

FRED SCHEIBER / 20 MINUTES

  • As part of the fight against food waste, unconsumed dishes, which represent more than 14,300 kg since the start of the school year, should be resold at reduced prices within a few weeks via the “Too good to go” application.

  • In the same spirit of reducing the carbon footprint of school canteens, an experiment to recycle cellulose trays from canteens will be launched.

  • And on the bio-waste side from the plates of little Toulouse residents, the town hall has just signed a contract with the Alchemists, who collect it to make compost.

Every day, 35,000 meals are delivered by the central kitchens of Toulouse to nursery and primary schools in the city.

But at the end of the service, it happens that trays of dishes are not opened.

And it is far from being anecdotal.

Thus, since the start of the September school year, no less than 14,400 kg of food have not been consumed.

A food waste which amounts to 58,700 euros.

These trays are not all lost, some of them are collected by the Restos du cœur, the Secours populaire or the Food Bank.

But these donations remain complicated to manage for questions of hygiene standards.

Toulouse city hall, which joined the “Mon Restau Responsable” network created by the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and the Restau'co network at the end of December, has therefore decided to study another avenue to promote them.

We are going to launch a reflection with @TooGoodToGo_Fr to promote food leftovers from school catering in the city of @Toulouse @jlmoudenc @M_lalane @RESTAU_CO @FondationNH

- JJBOLZAN (@JJBolzan) February 14, 2021

To achieve this, she turned to “Too good to go”, this application which allows consumers to buy unsold items from bakeries and other restaurants at reduced prices at the end of the day.

Since its launch in the Pink City in January 2017, this device has won over 65,000 users and 380 merchants.

In total, 390,000 baskets of dishes and other pastries were bought for a small fee by the people of Toulouse instead of being thrown away.

“Today, we are looking at how we can add value to the trays of dishes not consumed with Too good to go, what system we can put in place so that people, often in precariousness, can come and get them, where and at what time, ”explains Jean-Jacques Bolzan, the deputy mayor in charge of“ eating well ”and central cooking.

A device that already exists for example in the small town of Congrier, in Mayenne.

Via the application, residents can get a tray of dishes not consumed by the students for two euros.

Recycle trays and bio-waste

On the menu of commitments to improve the environmental performance of its canteens, the Toulouse town hall has undertaken to eliminate the use of plastic trays within 2 years and to upgrade its disposable trays.

Today, they represent 30 to 40% of the containers used.

An experiment will be launched in one or two pilot schools to see how to collect and promote them.

And this is not the only waste from the plates of little Toulouse residents that will find a second life.

Les Alchimistes Occiterra, which collects, among other things, bio-waste from restaurateurs to transform it into compost, have just won the tender for the central kitchen of Toulouse.

Planet

VIDEO.

Toulouse: Les Alchimistes transform peelings into black gold, at high speed

Society

Lyon: The town hall is experimenting with solidarity breakfasts in kindergartens

  • Recycling

  • Food waste

  • Cooked

  • school

  • Toulouse

  • Canteen

  • Planet

  • Society