Thai App Yindii Matches Consumers w/ Discount Boxes That Fight Food Waste

Bangkok-based startup Yindii has just launched a new mobile app that will help combat food waste in the city. It connects consumers with restaurants and cafés, who will offer “flash sales” on the platform to purchase food that would otherwise go to waste for a discounted price. Users can choose to pick up their orders or have them delivered directly to their doors. 

Yindii is a newly launched phone app that matches Bangkok residents with eco-conscious food outlets that are offering delicious food boxes that would otherwise be thrown away. It is sold on the platform to users for a discounted price, providing citizens with plenty of affordable choices that at the same time helps to reduce one of the biggest drivers of carbon emissions today – food waste. 

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, it also gives the food industry a much-needed helping hand, enabling restaurants to gain revenue that would otherwise be lost if the food went to the landfill. Once users purchase their rescued food Yindii box – which comes at a 50% to 70% price cut – they can choose to pick up their orders directly from the food outlet or have them delivered to their doors. 

33% of all food produced globally is wasted or lost every year. That is close to a billion and a half tons which is never consumed, accounting for 8% of the greenhouse gas emissions around the globe, 4 times more polluting than the airline industry.

Louis-Alban Batard-Dupre, Founder of Yindii

“33% of all food produced globally is wasted or lost every year. That is close to a billion and a half tons which is never consumed, accounting for 8% of the greenhouse gas emissions around the globe, 4 times more polluting than the airline industry. All this is an ecological disaster,” said Louis-Alban Batard-Dupre, founder of Yindii. 

The app is currently available for download on both iOS and Android devices, with current participating restaurants and cafés including plant-based fast casual outlet Broccoli Revolution, vegan restaurant Veganerie, and dairy-free healthy dessert bar Banana Warrior. Among the list of other notable food outlets on the platform are Sofitel Sukhumvit, Ohana Poke, Delifrance, Sunshine Market.

“The growing problem of food waste is challenging to solve for endless reasons including logistics, the complexities of short-lived items and the lack of a set market, which is what we are working to help solve – with a simple system for people and restaurants of surplus food to connect and enact,” added Batard-Dupre. 

With the wider Asia region responsible for generating over 50% of the world’s food waste – and this figure is set to rise as the continent becomes richer, more urbanised and populated – other digital solutions like Yindii’s are also emerging in other cities. 

The growing problem of food waste is challenging to solve for endless reasons including logistics, the complexities of short-lived items and the lack of a set market, which is what we are working to help solve – with a simple system for people and restaurants of surplus food to connect and enact.

Louis-Alban Batard-Dupre, Founder of Yindii

In Hong Kong, Breadline is a web app fighting food waste by connecting bakeries to volunteers who can collect leftover bread and help redistribute them to charities and people in need. The platform has attracted over 300 bakeries and countless volunteers, who have since donated 1,000 loaves of bread each week to underprivileged communities in Hong Kong, serving both an environmental and social need. 

Another app in Singapore, called Makan Rescue, is also committed to the anti-food waste cause. Developed by a group of university students, the mobile platform alerts Singapore residents to free leftover food nearby that would otherwise be discarded. Users are also allowed to notify other people of nearby food at risk of being tossed out.

All images courtesy of Yindii.