Senate and Tafel call for a ban on throwing away in supermarkets

By Bjorn Trautwein

Is there a throwaway ban for supermarkets now? The Berliner Tafel and Berlin’s Social Senator Katja Kipping (45, left) are calling for a new law against food waste. The agreed table boss Sabine Werth (65) and Kipping Friday when visiting a distribution point of the table in Spandau.

Background: The number of people in need at the food bank is increasing, at the same time, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, around 11 million tons of food end up in the garbage across Germany. Of this, around 800,000 tons of groceries (7 percent) are accounted for by the retail trade. However, it is estimated that only around 250,000 tons are donated to associations such as the Tafel every year. So there is a lot of room for improvement.

Werth to the BZ: “We now supply twice as many people as we did a year ago, at the same time food is still thrown into the garbage can, that doesn’t have to be the case.”

She is therefore calling for a legal regulation: supermarkets with more than 400 square meters of retail space should be obliged by law to give away food that can no longer be sold to charitable institutions.

Donate instead of throwing away. Werth: “In France it is already the law and a good solution. But it is important that the branches are obliged to donate the groceries for a good cause.”

There is now support from Social Senator Katja Kipping (left) – during a visit to the issuing office in the Paul-Gerhardt community in Spandau, the senator spontaneously promised support and wants to support the demand politically.

Kipping to the BZ: “This regulation makes sense to me and we will now look for ways to introduce a corresponding law at the federal level.”