The Dolphin Shopping Centre in Poole has installed two community fridge freezers in its Eco Hub to help reduce the high levels of food waste locally.
Brought in as a simple solution to wasting less through the sharing of good quality food, the Dolphin’s fridge freezers enable shoppers to drop off good but unwanted food, as well as help themselves to items inside.
John Grinnell, centre manager at the Dolphin Shopping Centre, commented: “We’re delighted to have introduced community fridge freezers to the centre; it’s something we’ve been working on for a while. We want to enable both businesses and individuals to waste less through the sharing of good quality food that’s within its use-by date.
“Every year in the UK, approximately 15 million tonnes of food and drink is thrown away and nearly half of this is perfectly good to eat. We are looking to make small steps along the way in order to address this staggering statistic.”
Shoppers can help themselves to food from the fridge freezers at their own risk, and all food taken must be logged in the Visitors’ Book – which is kept on top of the fridge in the Eco Hub.
Shoppers that wish to drop off unwanted food rather than throwing it away, can also leave their items in the fridge freezers. This will be particularly useful for those going on holiday or registered food businesses that simply have cooked too much to sell.
The fridge will not accept raw meat, fish or eggs, or cooked rice. Individuals can provide fruit, vegetables, bakery products that do not contain cream, non-dairy drinks and non-perishables (tins, pasta, etc). This is due to environmental health reasons. Registered food businesses can also provide cooked food.
Full instructions and a disclaimer for the community fridge freezers are available to view in the Eco Hub. Visit www.dolphinshoppingcentre.co.uk for further information.