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In short:
Thai company, Yindii, has developed an app where restaurants and other food services can sell their leftover food at a discount.
Yindii has saved more than 200,000 meals from waste
What's next?
The company is looking to expand in other countries, after success in Bangkok and Hong Kong.
Over a billion metric tonnes of food is wasted each year.
Food waste management is crucial — the issue currently contributes 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions at a time when 783 million people around the world face chronic hunger.
According to the most recent UN Environment Programme's Food Waste Index Report, about 28 per cent of food waste is from food services.
Now, one Thai company is trying to lower that statistic.
Launched in 2021, Yindii acts as a food ordering service similar to Uber Eats.
Vendors sell leftover food that would otherwise be wasted at a heavy discount, and customers can order a "mystery box".
Co-founder Mahima Rajangam said everyone won from the model.
"Food retailers are able to reduce their wastage, people get access to high quality food at a discount … and then collectively, together, you're actually reducing carbon emissions," she said.
Ms Rajangam said the company had collectively saved more than 200,000 meals from going to waste.
"In terms of carbon dioxide emission offset, [it] is around 500,000 kilograms of carbon offset — that's the environmental impact that we've created," she said.
The app currently hosts over 800 food vendors.
"We are clearing for a lot of brands as high as, like, up to 95 per cent of their excess stock."
The company's goal is to reach a zero-waste point.
Food waste a global issue
Researchers from the UN report found that each person wastes about 79 kilograms of food annually, equal to at least 1 billion meals wasted worldwide daily.
Richard Swannel, a co-author and director of Impact Growth at WRAP, said food waste was not a "rich world problem", but a global one.
"The data is really clear on this point, that here is a problem right around the world and one that we could all tackle tomorrow to save ourselves money and reduce environmental impact," he said.
The environmental toll of production, including the land and water required to raise crops and animals and the greenhouse gas emissions it produces, including methane, is significant.
Currently, Yindii is available in Bangkok and Hong Kong, with plans to expand into Singapore.
Ms Rajangam said every country could adopt similar methods to help fight food waste.
"Every single country has the problem of food waste, pretty much equally," she said.
She said some people had reservations about buying "waste food" at first, but the restaurants ensure the food is high quality.
A new government policy being introduced in Hong Kong is also forcing people to be more open-minded and conscious about the issue.
"Hong Kong is coming up with a municipal solid waste penalty, so the government is going to penalise based on the kilogram of waste that you generate for both businesses as well as people," she said.
"For a solution like Yindii, I think there will be a greater acceptance because now people are kind of forced to think about waste and act upon it."
ABC/AP