About an hour and a half's drive from Copenhagen, in an industrial district in the small town of Åstorp, the cries of seagulls mingle with the sound of powerful engines as the many trucks in front of the 64,000 sqm Frode Laursen warehouse, with ton-heavy trailers, zigzag between each other like ants in an anthill.
If food waste were a country, only China and the US would emit more CO2. In Norway, supermarket chain Meny has saved 18 percent of food waste costs on fresh meat by using smart barcodes.
In Denmark, 9 out of 10 bottles are collected, which is unique worldwide. It sounds simple, but it's not. Labelling helps to ensure that the system works. We have followed a small, thick-meshed bottle.
The New Loop is on a roll. A vision of a new deposit system for takeaway packaging has generated so much attention that it's almost hard to keep up. The future will bring coffee cups, pizza boxes and all sorts of other takeaway packaging ready to be recycled. And barcodes will be essential on that journey.
Despite the focus on food waste in Denmark in recent years, food waste for an average Danish family has remained unchanged. And the 2D barcode in combination with smart refrigerator solutions can change that.
Entrepreneur Katrine Lee Larsen has in just a few years created a sustainable success. She transforms fishnets into swimwear and expands the constant concept. Copenhagen Cartel has gone from being a small personal project to a growing company that is going global. And this despite the many critics who turned up their noses at the idea a few years ago.
