Our first month: 71 meals rescued and 177.5 kg of CO₂ saved
YumBite has been live for a month. Between 1 August and 1 September 2026, our partners and buyers rescued 71 meals together, adding up to 56.8 kilos of food and 177.5 kilos of avoided CO₂ emissions. Our first impact report shows exactly where those numbers come from, which businesses made the difference and how we calculate. You can download the report at the bottom of this post.
The numbers from our first month
Only orders that were actually collected are counted. Boxes that were reserved but never picked up, cancelled orders and refunds are deliberately left out, so the numbers stay conservative and verifiable.
- 71 meals rescued, meaning 71 YumBoxes collected instead of thrown away.
- 56.8 kilos of food that still made it to the table.
- 177.5 kilos of CO₂ that was never emitted.
What 177.5 kilos of CO₂ actually means
Kilos of CO₂ do not say much on their own. Using indicative rules of thumb from Milieu Centraal and the Netherlands Nutrition Centre, we translate it into something recognisable.
- 15 car trips from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, roughly 75 kilometres in an average Dutch passenger car.
- 237 hot showers of five minutes, based on 50 litres of hot water per shower.
- 8 trees growing for a year, with one tree capturing around 21 kilos of CO₂ per year.
- 114 full meals for one person, based on an average Dutch meal of 500 grams.
The partners who made the difference
Behind every box is a business owner who took the trouble to offer surplus instead of binning it. These were the leaders per category in this period.
In the meals category, SpareribLine Delft led with 23 rescued boxes. For shelf-stable products, Lindy's Patisserie came first with 18 boxes, and it also topped bread and pastry with 6 boxes, followed by Hartjes Brood en Banket with 5 and Bakkerij Erwin Scholtes with 3.
New on board
August also brought new businesses on board: Sushi Yaki, Traiteur-Bakkerij Bollen, Bakkerij Erwin Scholtes, Landwinkel Oude Stoof and Vers van de Pers Food. The more types of business take part, the more often there is something to rescue in your own neighbourhood.
What buyers said
The report includes reactions from buyers in this period, anonymised by removing the buyer's name. Two examples: “Lovely fresh satay, baguette and salad, good service and quick pickup” about SpareribLine Delft, and “All delicious! Lots of variety. Recommended” about Lindy's Patisserie.
How we calculate
We want every number to be verifiable, so the method is explained in the report itself.
Not every YumBox weighs the same: a box with meat has a bigger footprint than a box of bread. That is why we calculate per category using indicative values from FAO and Quantis life cycle studies, from 5.5 kilos of CO₂ for meat to 1.2 kilos for bakery products and 0.8 kilos for fruit and vegetables. The food saving in kilos is a flat estimate per box. The figures are indicative and have not been audited by an external accountant.
The bigger picture
This first month is small compared to the problem. According to the Netherlands Nutrition Centre, every Dutch person throws away around 33 kilos of food per year, worldwide about a third of all food is lost according to the FAO, and food waste accounts for roughly 8 percent of global emissions. Our 177.5 kilos is a drop in that ocean, but oceans are made of drops. Every box collected proves it can be done differently.
Download the full impact report
Want all the numbers, the full breakdown per category, the CO₂ factors we used and the afterword by our founder? Download the report as a PDF.
How to take part
Are you a consumer? Reserve a YumBox at a minimum 40 percent discount through the YumBite app and collect it at a business nearby. Are you a business owner? YumBite has no subscription, no long contract and no required volume: you decide which box you offer, at what price and at what time. That is how next month's report gets bigger.
Reserve a YumBox at a minimum 40% discount via the YumBite app at app.yumbite.nl.