According to a new UN report, we are wasting almost a billion tonnes of food globally each year – that equates to 23 million fully loaded 40-tonne trucks, which if placed bumper to bumper would be enough to circle the earth seven times. 

That averages a staggering 74 kilograms per person per year being thrown into household bins. But a further 15kg per person of good food is going to waste each year before it ever reaches our homes and that is through supermarket and retail food disposal.

If consumers need to play a role in reducing food waste, so too do supermarkets – perhaps even more so. Copenhagen-based Matt Homewood is what's known as a "dumpster diver," or perhaps more kindly an "urban harvester" – someone who lives off the food he finds in the large supermarket waste bins outside stores. 

For some suffering from food poverty, this might be a survival strategy. For a campaigning environmentalist like Homewood, it is also a public information service: He takes photos of what he finds and posts them on his Instagram feed, astounding hauls of perfectly arranged, perfectly edible food. 

As a private individual, Homewood isn't able to give the food waste to charities and other organizations on pain of a $1,200 fine, but he does share his hoards from the skips with family and friends. 

"People often ask 'Do the dumpsters stink?'," he laughs, before revealing that the climate is on his side. "In Denmark, for five months of the year, temperatures rarely get above 5 degrees Celsius, even during the day. So it's like a giant outside fridge for almost half a year," he explains.

Even as a seasoned harvester, Homewood is still surprised by the global reach of the produce he rescues. "From cucumbers from Spain to Chilean lemons to pork that's been raised in Denmark, fed on Brazilian soybeans. Foods are traveling all across our world today, and that means huge amounts of waste," he says.

In an afternoon's cycle across the city he finds mushrooms from Poland, a mango from Peru, grapes from South Africa, lemons from Spain and tomatoes from Italy, along with mangoes, an aubergine, carrots, cauliflower, oranges, apples, broccoli and lettuce – plus a special cheesy bonus from his final dumpster dive, one which he says perfectly illustrates the wastage.

"We're talking 40 mozzarella [packets], and there isn't a single discount sticker to be seen. And that's important because in Denmark, supermarkets discount with these stickers. Only economics and price fluctuations will solve this supermarket food waste scandal."

This story is part of the CGTN Europe Trash or Treasure special - a look at the challenges, innovations and solutions around Europe's waste disposal.