When presenting our bylaw and innovation proposal, our group is often asked what the penalty will be if grocery stores waste food.

The answer? We’re not 100% sure yet.

With our interviews we’ve received a lot of feedback on what route the policy should take, whether that be it should be a penalty or reward system (or a mix of both).

Personally, I’m all for a penalty system, if you don’t follow the bylaw your are fined. I believe that this will be the most successful way of carrying out, and the incentive would be if you don’t break the law, you don’t have to pay.

Others believe that a rewards system on would be the best way to follow through, because things like tax breaks will be a better incentive. A give and get situation.

In France where they have already implemented this law (making it illegal for grocery stores to waste food). They have in the past had rewards in place for stores to donate, however it was not taken advantage of and so the fine is proving much more successful.

Last week in class, we were able to further discuss this issue as a group, as well as get our instructor Ola’s opinion on the matter. What we concluded is that our main point will be a penalty system (fine). This is more likely to be accepted by government than a rewards system.