From Waste to Plate: Recorra and Plan Zheroes tackle food waste across London

Having supported surplus food redistribution charities for over a decade, we are immensely proud of the growth of the sector, now with thousands of tonnes of food being saved from waste.

On behalf of our clients, we’ve donated over £100,000 to food redistribution charities, by donating money for each food waste collection we undertake and raising money during company events.,

As a cause so aligned with Recorra’s mission, we are keen to continue to support more organisations who minimise food waste, whilst supporting the most vulnerable in society.

That’s why we are delighted to announce our new partnership with food redistribution charity Plan Zheroes.

Plan Zheroes began in the midst of the 2008 financial crash when founders Chris Wilkie, Lotti Henley and Maria Ana Neves read stories of supermarkets throwing away huge amounts of food, and at a time when many people couldn’t afford to feed their families. Their mission – and name – was thus inspired by the supermarket giants and the mass amounts of business waste within the UK.

When Marks & Spencer’s launched its Plan A sustainability campaign, the letter Z was specifically chosen to highlight the project as a grassroots, bottom-up community initiative, in contrast to corporate-led initiatives that ultimately benefitted a company’s bottom line. Plan Zheroes hope to inspire people to become zero food waste heroes in their own right; their goal is the end of food poverty and food waste.

Plan Zheroes hosts an online platform which connects businesses directly with surplus food to charities that need it. Whenever businesses have surplus food, they can donate by posting on the Plan Zheroes platform, where local charities can be notified of available food. These notifications contain the amount of food, its location, and its collection time and charities claim and collect the food on a first-come-first served basis.

Borough Market is a Plan Zheroes flagship project, where the charity undertakes collections of surplus food from the traders at the market. To date, the charity has saved over 103 tonnes of surplus food from the market going to waste. This is the equivalent of over 246,400 meals reaching people in need and an equivalent of over 413 tonnes saved in carbon emissions.

Plan Zheroes has also been working with the Real Food Market at Kings Cross to collect and redistribute their surplus food to local charities since 2014. By 2022, Plan Zheroes had donated 454 tonnes of surplus food to charities, equating to 1,080,952 meals and reducing carbon emissions by 1812 tonnes. Over half of the food redistributed by Plan Zheroes is fresh and nutritious food, including fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, diary, and eggs.

Plan Zheroes have plenty of volunteering opportunities is businesses want to get involved, helping at donation points near you or donating leftover food directly through their platform.

Recorra will be donating £0.25, for every food waste collection undertaken in London, to Plan Zheroes on behalf of our business waste customers. This donation, equivalent to one meal, which will go directly towards helping more vulnerable people receive food. Whilst nothing will change for Recorra customers, our recycling reports will be updated to include how many meals businesses have donated to Plan Zheroes.