Description
Zu gut für die Tonne! (“Too good for the bin”) is the German federal government’s campaign against food waste, with a free app of about 800 leftover recipes, storage tips for each food and a food-waste diary.
It is an initiative of the federal ministry for agriculture and food, published by the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) in Bonn. It started in 2012 and since 2019 has been part of the national strategy to halve food waste in shops and households by 2030. According to its figures, Germany produced about 10.8 million tonnes of food waste in 2022, 6.3 million of them (58 %) in private households; a GfK household study put it at 74.5 kg per person a year, including unavoidable parts such as peel and coffee grounds.
The app is free on iPhone and Android, and also works in the browser. Besides the recipes, around 200 of them recently added, it has a portion calculator, storage tips and a kitchen diary to note what ends up in the bin. The website has the leftover recipes, short videos, a food A–Z and teaching materials. Each autumn there is an action week; the seventh ran from 29 September to 6 October 2026. No ads or account were required on the pages read.
Strengths
- The app and the recipes are free, from a public body, without ads or an account on the pages read.
- Its recipes start from what is already left in the kitchen rather than from a shopping list, and the diary shows what ends up in the bin.
- The figures on food waste are dated and sourced, from the Federal Statistical Office and GfK household studies.
Weaknesses
- Bundestag papers criticised the campaign for having no measurable link to less waste and very low social media reach.
- A Bundestag committee paper noted that the campaign speaks only to consumers; retail and catering are handled in separate dialogue forums.
- Some pages still name the old ministry, BMEL, and several were last updated in 2024 or January 2025.
Who it is for
Households in Germany who throw away bread, vegetables or leftovers every week and want simple recipes and storage tips to use them up.
Sources
- Zu gut für die Tonne!: home, background, food waste in figures, leftover recipes, app, action week, legal notice (checked November 2026)
- Deutscher Bundestag: Drucksache 19/14256
- Deutscher Bundestag: Ausschussdrucksache 19(10)320-G
- Lebensmittel Praxis: Lebensmittel-Verschwendung, was bringt die Klöckner-Kampagne?