A new law in France requires supermarkets to donate unsold food to charity rather than destroy it, says the BBC. Stores occupying more than 400 square meters, or 4,300 square feet, have until July 2016 to sign contracts with charities or food banks to hand over unsold goods. Retailers “feel aggrieved at being portrayed as food wasters,” says the BBC, and charities are wary of being deluged with more food than they can distribute. The French Federation of Food Banks says it already gets 35 percent of its donations from supermarkets and praises them for their interest. Similarly, a trade group for retailers says big supermarkets are responsible for only 5 percent of food waste in the country and that 4,500 stores already have arrangements to donate food.
The law is the brainchild of Arash Derambarsh, a city councilor in a Paris suburb who launched an online petition that created momentum for the law. “Now he has his sights set on Europe,” says the BBC, with a new petition. If he can get 1 million signatures from citizens of at least seven EU countries, it would be sufficient “to launch what is known as a European Citizens’ Initiative – an official appeal to the European Commission to start legislation across the EU to ban supermarket waste.”