Advertisement
Environment

New app Karma brings food waste battle to UK

The Swedish start-up sensation is coming to Britain in attempt to slash the 10 million tonnes of food binned every year with 50 eateries already signed up

A new app could eat into London’s food waste problem by offering a 50 per cent discount in restaurants, cafés and grocery stores.

Karma has taken over Sweden since launching in 2016, with more than 250,000 users and 1,000 businesses signed up across 35 towns and cities. Now the tech firm is serving up the app to Londoners with more than 50 restaurants already on the menu, including Michelin-starred Aquavit, nine locations from French bistro Aubaine and Arket, the in-store restaurant for H&M’s latest concept store.

Magpie, the new restaurant from the team behind Hackney’s Michelin-starred Pidgin, is also on board while Wagamama founder Alan Yau OBE’s Yamabache has signed up to the service too at launch.

Other trendy restaurants offering up grub include vegetarian train Tibits, Essence Cuisine, Calcutta Street, Hummus Bros and Detox Kitchen.

Eateries upload surplus food, allowing hungry users to place an order and pick up the grub as a takeaway. It’s predicted Karma could help slash the UK’s 10 million tonnes of food binned every year, and help restaurants reach new customers.

The food app joins the likes of the Real Junk Food Project in its mission to reduce the levels of waste that have seem a third of all food produced globally being unnecessarily thrown away.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Karma co-founder Elsa Bernadotte said:“We are super excited to be live in London and that we already have these fantastic restaurants joining as our exclusive launching partners. The interest has been fantastic from day one and with Londoners being environmentally conscious, great foodies and highly digital in their food shopping, we think it’s a perfect match for a solution like Karma.”

Advertisement

Learn more about our impact

When most people think about the Big Issue, they think of vendors selling the Big Issue magazines on the streets – and we are immensely proud of this. In 2022 alone, we worked with 10% more vendors and these vendors earned £3.76 million in collective income. There is much more to the work we do at the Big Issue Group, our mission is to create innovative solutions through enterprise to unlock opportunity for the 14million people in the UK living in poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
Solar power: How much money can you really save with renewable energy?
Solar panels

Solar power: How much money can you really save with renewable energy?

Plastic recycling is failing – here’s how the world must respond
Plastic recycling has a much higher cost than you realise.

Plastic recycling is failing – here’s how the world must respond

Senior Tory Damian Green says swimming in sewage ain’t what it used to be, to the absolute horror of viewers
Water pollution

Senior Tory Damian Green says swimming in sewage ain’t what it used to be, to the absolute horror of viewers

Disabled people are being left out of the climate conversation
Environment

Disabled people are being left out of the climate conversation

Most Popular

Read All
Here's when people will get the next cost of living payment in 2023
1.

Here's when people will get the next cost of living payment in 2023

Strike dates 2023: From trains to airports to tube lines, here are the dates to know
2.

Strike dates 2023: From trains to airports to tube lines, here are the dates to know

Suranne Jones opens up about her 'relentless and terrifying' experiences of bullying
3.

Suranne Jones opens up about her 'relentless and terrifying' experiences of bullying

Arctic Monkeys team up with Big Issue to produce unique tour programme
4.

Arctic Monkeys team up with Big Issue to produce unique tour programme