Future In Our Hands is a Norwegian NGO that works to reduce food waste, by aiming to update the law to meet the modern sustainable European standard.

To achieve this, they needed to direct public attention towards the outdated food waste law, and make it known that grocery stores were throwing away enough delicious and perfectly edible food to feed 1/3 of the country's population.

BRIEF:

Get enough public buzz around the outdated food waste law to get Future In Our Hands new law suggestion up to discussion in the Norwegian Parliament.

SITUATION:

The population was sick and tired of hearing about food waste, thinking the food was probably thrown away for a reason.

To reach our goal, we needed to tap into peoples attitudes and behaviours towards expired food and break with the expectedness of our oftentimes serious and sad category.

On a 1 dumpster budget, Norwegian NGO Future In Our Hands managed to make The Norwegian Parliament legislate a new food waste law for the first time.

The campaign surprised people as well as journalists in an era of sad and serious environmental campaigns - proved by nation-wide media coverage and 4.1 Millions earned media within 24 hours.

The Dumpster Deli launch photo is the most popular social post in Future In Our Hands history, who have been campaigning for this exact cause for over 10 years.

As the Dumpster went viral, Norway's ministry of health, Norway's biggest food influencers and top politicians visited the Deli either on their own initiative or through un-paid invites.

But most importantly: The new law made it to parliament, and Norway is about to update the Food Waste Law for the first time in history.

If there's one group that knows how much good food the food industry is throwing away on a daily basis: it's dumpster divers.

By hacking the law we were trying to change and making Dumpster Diving legal, we turned a growing subculture into a full-fledged Norwegian culture, letting the public find, cook and share their trash meals.

During the financial recession more people than ever where thinking twice when visiting the grocery store, and could be open to alter their behavior towards reconsidering and trying expired food.

When food is extra expensive, pointing to how good the food thrown away by the industry is feels extra unfair.

1. In Norway you may risk up to three years in prison for dumpster diving.

The outdated food waste law in question is mostly technical and boring, but this one small paragraph stood out. And if there's one subculture that knows exactly how massive and delicious Norway’s food waste problem is, it's dumpster divers.

2. Norway is a wealthy country, and most people are scared of trash.

This gave the campaign an added tension in the local market. Target group interviews proved a lot of people still thought the "expired food" in question might have been "thrown away for a good reason". They needed to see it, feel it, or even better, taste it - for the first time.