Waste Not, Want Not: Food Waste Hackathon takes place at Warburg Institute

On Thursday 12th June, the University of London’s prestigious Warburg Institute welcomed 48 students from across 12 London-based Higher Education Institutes to our interdisciplinary Food Waste Hackathon. 

Facilitated by Arthur Shearlaw of Climate Jams, the event was co-organised by 10 London Universities, including University of London and four federal members – London School of Economics, Kings College London, City St Georges University of London and Queen Mary, University of London.

Gather & Gather,  the University’s catering services provider, were the principal sponsors of the challenge, providing the brief for the day: reframing abundance to reduce food waste. The perception of abundance as desirable with food often leads to over-purchasing, under-valuing food, and ultimately, unnecessary waste. From farms to fridges, over a third of food is lost and we need innovative, interdisciplinary solutions with behaviour change at their core.

Participants were placed in multi-disciplinary teams and given just five hours to research, define, develop and deliver their solution to a panel of expert judges working in the food waste sector. Their creative ideas ranged from innovative takeaway packaging solutions, community freezers, personalised ordering systems, and cleverly designed portioning plates.

The winning team were ‘The Scrap Savers’, made up of five students from five different London Universities, for their pitch to reimagine how we can use scraps for snacks. The winners each received a voucher for a meal for 2 at Silo, the world’s first zero-waste restaurant, based in Hackney Wick, courtesy of Gather & Gather. 

In total, we were glad to welcome 22 students from across the Federation to the Hackathon. The event perfectly exampled what can be achieved through inter-university collaboration, and bringing students together from across disciplines to come up with creative solutions to big world challenges such as food waste. 

The University of London is prioritising waste reduction and implementing comprehensive waste reduction and recycling engagement programmes across all facilities in the coming years. This includes a focus on reducing food waste – both from our commercial events and from student halls of residence. 

Want to get involved in driving change? 

Staff: Join our Staff Champions Network on Teams or send us an email to [email protected].

Students: If you live in one of the University of London Halls of Residence, reach out to us on [email protected] if you’d like to be involved in any waste reduction initiatives in your hall.