Taste or Waste

Should the global population reach 9.6 billion by 2050, the equivalent of almost three planets could be required to provide the natural resources needed to sustain current lifestyles. Rethinking our ways of living, how we buy and what we consume is our chance to transform our societies towards more equity and living in balance with our natural environment. Our vision is for sustainable lifestyles to be attractive and accessible. But what one makes kind of lifestyle choice more attractive than another? Choices are often driven by values, cultural and economic. Empowering individuals to choose a sustainable lifestyle means tapping into the values that lie behind consumption (in its broadest terms) and understanding the specific cultural and institutional context in which individuals make lifestyle choices. A sustainable lifestyle does not mean compromising your quality of life. A sustainable lifestyle is an attractive solution and leads to better health, uses less resources and more happiness. Creating awareness around what a sustainable lifestyle is and is not is the first step. Moving from awareness to action is important to reduce our carbon footprint. We want to inspire target audiences to create their own attractive, sustainable lifestyle; one that reflects their values and aspirations. We want to create forums for youth to share their thoughts and actions, to inspire each other. Our #TASTEORWASTE campaign with Berghs School of Communication, Stockholm, was looking for young influencers who could use their popular social media channels to spread the word about cutting food waste. The central idea in #TASTEORWASTE is to challenge young people to dare to eat food past its “best by” date instead of throwing it away, and to trust their own judgement about what is still good to eat. The campaign was developed as part of the 10YFP Sustainable Lifestyles and Education programme, co-led by Sweden through SEI. The 10YFP – the Ten Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production – is a global framework for action to enhance international cooperation and accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production. #TASTEORWASTE challenged young people to dare to trust their own senses and see, smell and taste food rather than throwing away perfectly edible food because the“best by" date is close or has passed. SEI and Berghs worked with influencers to do the challenge on social media and dare their followers to take it on and spread the word. Influencers tasted milk, yogurt, pasta and other products and discovered it was good to eat. Some people even posted recipes using some of the ingredients they found on their fridge that had passed the "best by date". 500 000 people were reached during the first two weeks of the challenge and #TASTEORWASTE is still being used in social media. Visit http://tasteorwaste.org/ (in swedish) or do the challenge on social media and use the hashtag #TASTEORWASTE