A dumpster diver draws attention to Finland’s food waste problem.
Helsingin Sanomat looks at food waste through the eyes of dumpster diver-turned-influencer Teemu Arppe.
For nearly a decade, he hasn’t needed to buy food. Instead, he finds it in the skips behind supermarkets. In Helsinki’s wealthier neighbourhoods, discarded groceries can amount to unexpected treasure.
HS tags along as Arppe retrieves a steak from a store bin. He has sustained himself largely on food trashed by retailers and has documented his finds on social media.
For him, dumpster diving is above all an act of respect for food. Discarding edible produce, he argues, ignores the labour and resources that went into producing it.
The paper highlights a recent EU report finding that roughly ten percent of food available to consumers is wasted, even as 40 million Europeans cannot afford a nutritious meal every other day.
Arppe told the paper he believes retailers should be held more accountable for the products they sell, including their disposal at the end of their life cycle.
Cool Midsummer?
Rain is forecast for days, possibly weeks, as a low-pressure system moves across Finland.
Weather service Foreca told Ilta-Sanomat conditions are set to become progressively more unsettled.
Showers and heavier bands of rain are expected to spread across much of the country over the coming week.
Current forecasts suggest temperatures could reach 20 degrees Celsius over Midsummer, and perhaps edge slightly higher in the warmest areas.
Backyard staycation
Specialty retail has seen a good start to the year, according to Statistics Finland.
In March, sales volumes rose by over eight percent compared with a year earlier.
Talouselämä highlights a jump in demand from gardeners and amateur backyard landscapers.
One hypothesis is a return of a phenomenon seen during the pandemic, in which households redirected spending towards home improvements and summer cottages, rather than travel abroad.
