1/2 Groceries that Femke took out of the wheelie bin (photo: Carlijn Kösters).
Femke from Eindhoven is angry about the food waste at a branch of flash delivery service Flink in Eindhoven. Several times a week she gets bread, fruit and other products such as Mars bars from a bin next to the branch. The products are almost expired, or on the date, but still of good quality. “There are people who can’t afford their groceries and they just throw it in the trash.”
“This is the catch of one round to the wheelie bin,” says Femke from Eindhoven. Her table is full of loaves of bread, apples, tangerines and Mars bars. It’s boxes full, but this was all that fit in her bag. “It’s much more,” she says. She is angry.
“I did not know what I saw.”
Femke makes the discovery around Easter weekend. When she walks past the Flink branch on Frederiklaan in the city center, she sees a delivery man dump the contents of his pink bag in the wheelie bin. “I didn’t know what I saw,” she responds.
The delivery man says that ‘this has to be done by his boss’. Later, Femke confronts a supplier of Flink with this statement. To her surprise, he agrees with the story. “Of the six crates I deliver here, two disappear in the wheelie bin,” he says.
Since then, Femke has walked past the infamous Flink wheelie bin several times a week. She sometimes takes out boxes of bananas, kiwis, loaves of bread and apples. “I take it to my neighbor, who has acquaintances who cannot afford the groceries themselves.” Or she puts the products in so-called neighborhood cabinets, distributed throughout the city. People with a tight wallet can unpack some groceries themselves, for free.
Femke is devastated that Flink treats the products in this way. “Something needs to be done about this,” she says combatively. “I’m really, really sad about this.”
“We often have double loads here, so we also have to throw away a lot.”
While she is making another round of the rubbish bin on Sunday afternoon, the filling team leader of the branch walks up to Spil. The branch is aware of the problem, he says. “We often have double loads here, so we also have to throw away a lot.” And he talks about that too. “We are trying to do something about it and are already working with an anti-waste app, but that doesn’t solve everything.”
“I understand that they can’t give up everything. Especially for products that have expired,” Femke responds. “But this is just way too much.”
The manager of the branch says he is open to talking to the concerned Femke. “That’s nice, because this really can’t go on,” she responds. “It is nice that they want to talk, but I still want to see the result.”
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2023-05-21 12:52:09
#Anger #flash #delivery #groceries #click #Didnt
