OLIO- The New Food Sharing App Revolutionising Waste

We grow very isolated in London. Many of us live in small places stacked up with many other people who come and go much faster than in other locations. We very easily get trapped in our own lives and fail to make any meaningful connection with the people just the other side of our wall or across the street. OLIO aims to reinvigorate this sense of a community the only way we know how- through our phones.

 

The idea came to Tessa Cook, 40, when leaving her Switzerland abode to return to Finsbury Park. She found some leftover vegetables she could not bring herself to throw away and found the prospect of offering them to her neighbours daunting. She explained her idea of a food-sharing app to friend Saasha Celestial-One, also 40, and the pair gave themselves one year to make the concept work.

The Problem

We live in a strange world of supply. Producers supply to shops and wholesalers, who supply to the consumer. We overstock on perishable goods so we don’t run out, then we find ourselves throwing out food that just a matter of days ago would have been perfectly good to eat. What’s more, we are painfully aware of the cumulative affect of the whole city doing the same. What is the impact of those lost pounds, food miles and packaging? OLIO intends to help solve this problem.

Fortunately, recent years have seen a wealth of new efforts to redistribute food- mainly supermarket stock reaching its sell-by date. Many of these focus on helping homeless people and associated charities. Even high street cafes like Pret a Manger are incorporating these systems into their distribution. But what about us when it comes to the fridge before we go away for the weekend? Olio is a food sharing app intended to distribute small-scale produce between shops and neighbours for widespread impact.

The Statistics Speak for Themselves

The Waste and Resources Action Programme report for 2015 concluded 4.4 million tonnes of food that could have been eaten was wasted in the UK, compared to 4.2 million tonnes in 2012. The retail value of this was £13 billion.

As of March 9, 2017, some 214,169 items of food had been shared through OLIO. Sharing in 41 countries demonstrates the impact of this international venture. This was only launched July 9, 2015!

Earlier this year, OLIO secured $2.2m in investments from Accel, Quadia, Mustard Seed and ASOS co-founder Quentin Griffiths. Mustard Seed in particular focuses on supporting long term projects that intend to benefit society.

How it Works

The rules are relaxed and uncomplicated. Most of all, OLIO recommends you offer nothing you would not want yourself. Nevertheless, exceeded ‘best before’ dates are fine because they are. You post a photograph of your items to the app. Then, local people who want the items can claim and collect them. You can have recievers come to your door and vice versa, or use ‘drop boxes’ at local shops and cafes. All items are free or for a small donation to charity. It is from a small fraction of each donation that OLIO will generate revenue.

The app is available on iOS 7.0 and Android 5.0 and higher but not yet on Windows phone. OLIO intends to launch a desktop version this year.

Stewart Vickers @VickHellfire

 

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