- 26 minutes ago
German bread may be recognized by UNESCO, but a lot gets tossed. A Zimbabwean reporter takes a look at how Berlin is trying to stop that. And cleaning up water in Ghana and plastic waste in Nigeria and Burundi.
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00:12bread is a familiar part of everyday life in Zambia from the everyday wheat
00:19loaf to traditional faves like mille meal bread but Germany's sourdough is a
00:24different story so since I finally got my hands on one I'm gonna enjoy it every
00:31last crumb I'll be too right Malama and not just because it's so tasty did you
00:39know that 58 million tons of foods are thrown away every year in countries of
00:45the European Union huh our reporter from Zimbabwe found this quite baffling when
00:52he visited Berlin fresh from the oven these loaves are part of Germany's rich
01:02bread culture which posts over 3,000 varieties UNESCO listed German bread as
01:09intangible cultural heritage in 2015 sadly at the end of the day some bakeries set
01:15aside any bread that goes unsold it's my first time in Germany and the sight of
01:20edible bread about to go to West evokes bitter memories during the peak of
01:24Zimbabwe's hyperinflation period bread was hard to come by and when you are lucky
01:30enough to find it a single loaf would go for billions of Zimbabwean dollars now
01:36things have changed for the better in Zimbabwe but however as I report right
01:41here in Germany I observe a different bread challenge what happens to the excess
01:46loaves of bread that are on the verge of being thrown away let's find out for one
01:53of Berlin's popular bakery chains like tight for broad reducing wastage is not
01:58always easy it's always a delicate balance for your one is one of the
02:02bakeries managers keeping fresh bread on the shelves and satisfying customers
02:07changing demands to get help serving leftovers he goes elsewhere you cannot plan
02:14exactly there's never going to be a hundred percent accuracy and that's why
02:18it really helps to have a partnership with very in the top of food sharing so
02:23they will take care of the surplus which we try to minimize but they will
02:27take the rest of it so other people can still enjoy it today six credits of
02:34leftover bread and pastries from the previous day are being collected by the
02:37Berliner Tafel a non-profit food rescue organization even a small surplus can
02:45really add up
02:54such figures mean food businesses are also looking for ways to turn a profit from
02:59some of the day-old bread one approach involves online applications like too good
03:04to go similar food rescue platforms are also taking route in countries like
03:10Nigeria South Africa and Kenya curious to find out how the bread rescuing
03:16application works I tried it out myself let's check how back home when we talk
03:24about bread the conversation revolves around costs Northwest but right here in
03:31Germany applications like too good to go are helping to just solve that by
03:37connecting leftover food from shops and supermarkets with potential customers at a
03:42discounted price for just a third of the price I get a surprise bag full of
03:47random bread and pastries so finally I got the surprise bag I'm not so sure what is
03:53inside maybe we can have a fill of it together I find the idea appealing but the
03:58experience has made me consider another issue this bag may keep a few laws out
04:04of the bin but it only represents a small fraction this raises an important
04:10question are such initiatives dealing with the problem of bread West or simply
04:16managing abundance to understand the scale of Germany's bread was challenge I
04:22followed the collective surplus bread and pastries to the Berliner Tafel where
04:27together with other foodstaffs they are sorted before being distributed to over a
04:32hundred thousand people in need
04:42despite this demand can the Berliner Tafel and other food rescue initiatives
04:46absorb the surplus bread generated each day in Berlin no when it comes to other food
04:53banks and smaller cities and villages I'd say yes but in Berlin definitely not no I
04:58would say there is still way more supply then we can save this means bread that
05:07cannot be served ultimately ends as West and as to all the other food waste heaping
05:12up it's a big problem here however when it is no longer feeding into the human food
05:21chain that doesn't always mean it's the end what I find intriguing here is how it
05:27gets a second life as renewable energy through biogas initiatives but while that is important
05:34Ioannis believes more could be achieved by sharing responsibility starting off with
05:39bakeries doing their beach and then households to not page way too much to to
05:45also allow your availability to decrease towards the evening and second part is
05:54also in private households if you store bread in the right way at home you can
05:58have it for several days and even if it goes a bit dry you can you can still slice it
06:04up and
06:05put it in the freezer so it stays pressure you can put it in a toaster it's a simple idea
06:10but one
06:11that shifts from rescuing bread to preventing West in the first place as my adventures in Germany come
06:20to an end I can only but marvel at our bread ties my past with this place my memories of
06:27economic
06:27hardships have shaped how I see the unsolved loaves on Berlin's bakery shelves but following their
06:34journey has shown me that this is not a story about West it is also about community solidarity and the
06:41limits of giving food another chance scientists say on a hot day like this depending on temperature
06:53you should drink two to three liters of water here in Lusaka it is relatively safe to drink water from
07:01the tap but that's not the case everywhere on the continent and certainly not in rural areas
07:11until recently Lalia Abdulmumin and her daughter had to walk to the well in Shishagu several times a day
07:18to fetch drinking water for the house once home they had to set a fire and boil the water litter
07:26by
07:26litter it was time-consuming but essential she had to tell him to be jolly cousin lady the kata la
07:36free
07:36they still tend to dump them you know to join my car now my time since last year she has
07:46been going to
07:46their community's bowl instead there she can source clean drinkable water how has that become possible here
07:55in this community of tamale the Dutch company element 15 has launched a project to promote clean drinking
08:02water in northern Ghana the local team is currently in Shishagu near tamale inspecting the filters the
08:10bus system consists of four filters we have the spin down filter we have the sediment filter the
08:16bacteria filter and then the carbon filter now as you can see this is water from a borehole and then
08:23you
08:23take a borehole you think you are taking a clean water but actually it is made up of fine particles
08:31called sediment that you cannot even see with your eyes so with these filters it traps all these fine
08:37particles and then when the water comes out of the bus system it is very clean and safe and portable
08:44Ghana's groundwater is becoming increasingly polluted garbage pesticides and mining release a multitude of
08:51pollutants into the environment rain eventually washes them into the groundwater a recent study shows that
08:59extreme rainfall in Ghana has risen by 23 percent in recent years when it rains all of these are carried
09:07by excess water and they are supposed to go down and join the groundwater so the levels of these contaminants
09:23in many regions of Ghana waterborne diseases are among the most common reasons people are admitted to
09:32hospital to establish the water yielding capacity and to find out just how extensive water contamination is
09:40in northern Ghana element 15 run test in the boreholes the water in shishabu was also tested at a laboratory
09:48in tamale
09:49the results show that the well water is heavily contaminated the bacteria count for total coliform is 100 times
09:58higher and for equali 64 times higher than the who limits the filtered water on the other hand is perfectly
10:06fine
10:07says the testers the unfiltered sample didn't meet the who recommended guidelines for equali and total coliform and
10:19turbidity but the filtered sample passed all for the recommended values since 2024 the company has installed 65 water pumps
10:30with filtration systems granting nearly 1 million people in northern Ghana access to clean drinking water
10:36to make sure the project remains sustainable long-term element 15 has hired technicians from local communities to
10:44perform regular maintenance on the systems so far is provided work for 11 technicians and there are other
10:51positive effects as well boiling less water means using less wood and therefore less deforestation
10:57people in northern ghana have reduced co2 emissions by more than 29 000 metric tons
11:04the company can turn these carbon credits into cash by selling them to the government which in turn
11:10trades them internationally that cash will then be reinvested in the project reducing its dependency on donations
11:19technicians visit the villages regularly to replace the filters whenever a new system is installed
11:25they explain to the residents how it works and remind them to keep the area around the water sources
11:32trash free
11:32so
11:53it's not a source of high
12:01profits for the company but it is a sustainable system that provides people in northern ghana
12:07with clean drinking water now many of you have eaten goat meat before in nigeria there is a
12:19delicacy called asu that became a fixture at weddings and parties but honestly can you imagine
12:27drinking from a goat skin it's actually not such a bad idea bark powder leaves animal hide and skilled
12:40craftsmanship that's what it takes to make a traditional tuareg water canteen known as a
12:45water skin containers made from animal hide like these have been crafted on many continents for
12:52centuries whether in europe asia or africa they're ideal for people who are on the move
13:02among mali's nomadic tuareg people the tradition has endured
13:07baguya agmoussa learned the craft from his uncle who in turn learned it from his father
13:22and the family in segu trained as a marketing specialist he works in the tourism sector
13:39but on the side he also makes leather water skins
13:43today only around 20 artisans in mali know how to craft them like musas uncle they make them to order
13:52baguya agmoussa first collects leaves from an acacia tree these are then soaked in water with a goat hide
14:10roughly a month later the container is ready to use fresh water can be stored in it for several days
14:16an advantage that baguya agmoussa emphasizes at segu's weekly market a leather water skin costs
14:23the equivalent of around 30 to 38 euros a considerable sum for many people in mali but musa says the
14:30investment is worth it a tuareg tradition that offers a sustainable alternative to plastic drinking containers
14:50unfortunately most people don't have such a great drinking vessel and still have to buy water in plastic
14:59bottles or even bags and you know what comes next a lot of waste and pollution but that doesn't have
15:08to be
15:08the end of the story every plastic bottle that you trash can either pollute our streets or creates value
15:20so
15:26my name is rita idei i'm the founding ceo of eco brata where we are turning waste into opportunities
15:34so what happens to waste especially household waste in nigeria is
15:38terrible you know right now 90 percent according to the world bank statistics of the waste that we
15:43generate in our homes end up bonds on open dumps or disposed along drainage ways how we manage our waste
15:48currently contributes the third largest to our greenhouse gas emission in nigeria
16:00where we are is a rented property and so we've divided the area you know to handle different materials
16:06materials so here you have the pet plastics over there you have the add we call them add plastic so
16:12pp hdp different types of plastic like as you can see the broken chairs just add plastics generally
16:19so this is our sort of processing area we have the baling machine that we use in compressing the plastic
16:25bottles into bills so these are called bills so the compressing it makes the cost of logistics better so
16:33we can then send them over to lagos to the off takers and manufacturers that use them
16:49the biggest challenge that i faced starting eco butter was actually knowledge when i decided that
16:56i wanted to do this i didn't even know who to sell the material to i didn't know anything i
17:00didn't
17:00understand the sales circle there was so much information that i didn't know and i couldn't
17:04get online when i did my research on the technologies that you know were important in recycling there
17:10was vending machine i remember calling my tech friend to say can we build this that was the question
17:15right can we build this and him in his stupidity said of course we can build it we've not built
17:19it
17:19before but if it's something that is anywhere in the world we can replicate it and so that was how
17:25the
17:29journal started this is a reverse vending machine the first locally manufactured one in nigeria and
17:35in fact in africa so when you come to this machine with your plastic or beverage can you press on
17:41start
17:42when you press that then you put in your bottles one after the other as many as you've come to
17:47the
17:48machine with you scan the carrier code it takes you to our mobile application where you can then
17:52transfer the money that you've earned into your bank account by airtime electricity or data currently
17:58in abuja we have 26 of this machine and in lagos we have two of these machines
18:07people would think recycling was only for the poor but with this machine now like first it's neat it's
18:13clean it's technology right so everybody's interested prior to now we had i think about 3 000 people on
18:19our platform now we have close to 13 000 people within one year honestly i would say that just
18:25changing the narrative of who should recycle and what recycling is about is the biggest impact that
18:31this mission has made harvest time there's nothing quite like fresh fruit or vegetables but also often
18:44fruits and vegetables spoil before they even reach us the consumer the journey from farm to market is
18:51full of challenges poor roads limited cold storage and so on but what if we could cut food spoiling
19:00before it even starts uganda is losing mountains of fruits and veggies every day
19:10what if a tiny sasha could save these tons of fruits and veggies from rotting
19:17how do you save your bananas when they've turned brown banana braid banana milk
19:24moonlaki does it the ugandan way she turns them into fried pancakes mixing them with cassava flour
19:34when i make pancakes i don't recover all the losses but at least i i gain something i get something
19:41out of it
19:42but often there's too much waste what she can't use she throws away and pays for it to be collected
19:50the rubbish is also expensive it's expensive and those people don't want to know
19:56why i have made losses i did not sell anything it's okay approximately 1.3 billion tons of food
20:04produced is wasted on the african continent up to 40 percent spoils before reaching the consumers
20:14uganda storage and transport system is failing and researchers say the consequences go far beyond rotting
20:22fruit close to 70 percent of municipal waste in kampala is food waste these rot promote growth of
20:33microorganisms increase the spread of diseases their public nuisance the rapid decomposition of organic
20:41waste is responsible for 58 percent of methane emissions methane is to blame for around 30 percent
20:48of the rising global temperatures and decomposing garbage isn't just a problem in the capital kampala
20:57if too many pineapples ripen at once farmers can't find buyers
21:03some have dumped their harvest by the roadside after losing hope
21:22to address this problem makerede university has trained over 2000 students in food processing and
21:28preservation here fruits are turned into pulp and pasteurized what would spoil in a week can now last
21:36more than a year if refrigerated even the waste has value orange peel for example contains pectin used as
21:44a thickener and a gelling agent pectin is the one which provides strength for the fruit so are these
21:51acid acidic fruits some of them like citrus fruits i believe to have a lot of pectin pectin acts as
21:59a
21:59stabilizer in the dairy products and also in germ making but back to the fruit vendors at the kampala market
22:06one scientist has found the way to make the vendors produce last longer without refrigeration
22:14biotechnologist gift anod mogisha developed the idea as a student at makerere university his solution uses
22:22nanotechnology extremely small materials engineered to work at a microscopic level we are talking
22:28minuscule a single nanoparticle can be as small as one to 100 nanometers wide and a nanometer is up to
22:37a hundred thousand times smaller than a human hair
22:42nanomaterials have unique physical and chemical qualities that differ from conventional materials
22:47their properties can be adapted at this microscopic level mogisha uses that to produce bio-based nano
22:55enzymes to improve the longevity of fruits he discovered that by surrounding fruits with these
23:02enzymes he can extend their shelf life by up to 31 days we use electro spinning technology to be able
23:11to
23:11create nanofibers which nanofibers are branded into our formulation that we pack in our sachets like you see here
23:22they are able to infiltrate the fruit on a molecular level the sachets release natural compounds that interact
23:30with gases around the fruit slowing activity of microbes and enzymes that cause decay
23:39because this tomato is alive it's alive it's breathing it's respiring so what we do we curtail those
23:46processes and we keep that tomato um metabolizing at a very low slower state but the sachets can also
23:53have the opposite effect if farmers need faster ripening to meet market demand i can give an example
24:00plantain plantain plantain comes from the field when it's green but for consumers and to unlock the nutrients
24:07plantain is more nutrient field when it's ripened up so with this we are able to accelerate that ripening
24:15and provide fruit very quickly for consumption or for sale today more than 500 vendors are using the sashes
24:23primary primary in kampala two big ugandan food exporters have also adopted them vendors say mogisha's
24:31sashes make a big difference even if improvement is needed
24:44beyond food security and income food waste is a global public health and environmental issue
24:51reducing food loss is not just about saving crops so when fruits spoil the energy the water the
24:58resources the transportation that has been used in transporting growing these fruits is wasted that
25:04means there is another reinvestment that is done which increases actually it doubles the carbon footprint
25:09with further funding mogisha aims to scale distribution across uganda's food industry
25:14his work shows how technological solutions can be significant in rising to global challenges and help feed
25:22people on the ground here in uganda you can find more innovative ideas and solutions in our echo drop
25:31newsletter goodbye and if you've got any brilliant idea or suggestion of yours drop us a line bye for now
26:01you're so good thank you
26:03thank you