To what extent does Sweden

addresses the food disposal issue

Introduction
In August 2015 France have proposed a law in which all the stores which have more than 400 sq
m should donate food to charity in order to reduce the food waste in France1. This low
unfortunately did not pass due to procedural reasons2, but some of the supermarket chains have
started since then to collaborate more with the charities organizations in order to lower their food
waste.
As many people around the world know Sweden is one of the greenest countries and also it deals
with a lot of recycling. Although there is a lot of content about how Sweden deals with their
garbage there is not much info about what Sweden does with the almost expiring food from the
supermarkets. In the process of making this essay an interview will be conducted with an official
speaking on the behalf of one of the Swedish supermarkets. This essay will be focusing on the
global issue regarding the food disposal and food waste.
Food waste it is a big environmental issue with one third of the food produced for human
consumption3 being thrown away every year. France has started in the right direction by
approaching this law and by doing so it gives a model for the European community to follow.
Managing the natural resources is an important part for the sustainable development and this law
will help France in its way. Coming back to Sweden, Sweden does not have such a program yet,
but its recycling efforts have given many other countries a model to follow. \

Objectives:
1 Schofield, Hugh. "Is France's Supermarket Waste Law Heading for Europe? - BBC News." BBC
News. BBC News, Paris, 18 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine33907737>.

2 Michail, Niamh. "France's Food Waste Law Scrapped on a Technicality."FoodNavigator.com. N.p.,

28 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.foodnavigator.com/Policy/France-s-food-waste-lawscrapped-on-a-technicality>.

3 "Key Facts on Food Loss and Waste You Should Know!" Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. <http://www.fao.org/savefood/resources/keyfindings/en/>.

The objective of this paper is to find out how much food waste do the Swedish supermarkets
generate and how do they deal with the disposal of the waste. This paper will be focusing on the
environmental aspects and the global challenges that the food waste represents. Another point of
focus of this paper will be the comprising of Sweden and France in the food waste department
and also in the recycling overall.

Part I: Research
Sweden is now getting to a rate of 100 percent recycling. More than 99 percent of all the
household waste is recycled in one way or another.4 The efficiency of the Swedish recycling
program is uncountable one of the best in the world right now and we can consider Sweden as
one of the greenest countries in the world. When it comes to the food waste Sweden its teaching
its citizens to throw away as little food as possible. This education starts from school where the
young children are taught not to take more food than they can eat in order to minimize the
amount of food that is thrown away. By teaching the people from a young age these things we
can expect them to follow the same rules thorough their lives and teach others as well. After
knowing all of these and experiencing this on myself, I taught that the food supply chains would
be alright compared with the rest of the Europe. The actual research began online where I have
found that Swedens food waste coming from the food supply chains it is about 70 000 tons per
year5. In comparison France has a food waste generated by the shops of about 700 000 tons per
year. So how does Sweden do that was my next question. In order to answer to that question I
arranged a meeting with one to of the representatives of a large supermarket chains in Sweden.
He agreed to meet up and have a brief interview, but he mentioned that he does not want me to
revile the supermarket chains name, nor his.

Part II: The interview

The interview was conducted at the interviewees office and it was recorded. The interview was
brief due to the time limitations of the meeting. Here are some key questions and answers as the
whole interview would be irrelevant.
Q: Sweden has among the lowest food waste levels when it comes to the supermarkets. Why is
Sweden doing so well in comprising with the other countries?
4 Fredn, Jonas. "The Swedish Recycling Revolution." Sweden.se. N.p., 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 13
Oct. 2015. <https://sweden.se/nature/the-swedish-recycling-revolution/>.

5 Eriksson, Mattias. "Supermarket Food Waste." Prevention and Management with the Focus on
Reduced Waste for Reduced Carbon Footprint(2015): n. pag. Pub.epsilon.slu.se. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
<http://pub.epsilon.slu.se/12756/1/Eriksson_m_151029.pdf>.

A: Well there are some regulations and we also trying to minimalize our costs as much as we
can. Food waste means also money waste and as a company we try to cut these costs down as
much as we can.
Q: So what exactly are you doing with the food that is either expiring or that has not been bought
in the shops?
A: There are a few ways in which we do that actually. One of them are donations, as we work
with different shelters and lately with the refugees camp. Most of the food that we are giving
away is eatable food but some of them are not in the best shape. For instance people are not
buying a can of beans if the packaging has been damaged, so we give them away in order not to
throw them into the garbage. Also we are constantly making statistics and find out how much
people actually consume in order to do stocks that are not too big. In the end we throw food that
cannot be given away in any way but then again most of it gets recycled.