BeloBag
How we count
- We count only bags and items that customers collected at a shop’s counter. Nobody can add a number by hand.
- We say “collected”, not “saved”: we can’t know that each bag would otherwise have been thrown away.
- Kilograms always say “about” and CO2e always says “estimated”: they are estimates, not measurements.
- Estimated CO2e is shown in the app only in Nepal for now.
What counts
- One count for each bag or item handed over at the counter, once the shop confirmed it: staff entered the pass code, or the customer entered the code shown on the shop’s counter phone. A pass can hold up to 4 units of one item: each unit counts as one item.
- A pickup counts 48 hours after the handover, if it was not refunded, its listing was not removed and it was not held for a check. That is why your last pickups show up within 2 days.
What never counts
- Listings, views and holds
- Cancelled or released bags, and no-shows
- Refunded pickups and removed listings
- Demo shops, test accounts and the shop’s own owner
- Pickups held for a check, until a person decides
- Items after their date: the counter can’t hand them over
No shop, customer or BeloBag staff member can add a pickup or change a number. We can only leave a pickup out or put it back, and every such decision is logged.
Where the kilograms come from
- Bags: the weight of the bag size the shop picked, from BeloBag’s own cautious table. A custom size counts the weight the shop gave, at most the largest size in that country. A bag without a weight counts as a bag with 0 kg: we never guess a weight.
- Items: the net quantity printed on the pack times the units collected. Millilitres count as grams and litres as kilograms; items counted in pieces add 0 kg. At most 5 kg a unit and 10 kg a pickup.
- The weight is copied at the handover and never changed afterwards.
Estimated CO2e: BeloBag impact method v1
Estimated CO2e = kilograms × category factor × 0.9, rounded down.
0.9 is the share we assume is eaten: 10% of collected food may still be wasted at home (the same assumption as Too Good To Go’s life-cycle study, after Wageningen University, 2019).
Each factor is in kg CO2e per kg of food as sold, from farm to shop, including land-use change. Source: Poore and Nemecek (2018), Science 360:987-992, world averages, via Our World in Data. In each category we take the lowest common food and round it down.
| Category | Factor | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Every bag, bakery, cakes and sweets, ready meals | 1.5 | Wheat and rye bread, 1.57. For mixed food, our own cautious value. |
| Dairy: milk, yogurt, curd | 3.0 | Milk, 3.15 |
| Cheese | 20 | Cheese, 23.88 |
| Eggs | 4.5 | Eggs, 4.67 |
| Meat and fish | 9.5 | Poultry, 9.87, the lowest meat |
| Fruit and vegetables | 0.4 | Root vegetables and apples, 0.43 |
| Soft drinks, snacks, frozen and other packed food | 1.5 | The same cautious value |
Every bag uses 1.5 in v1, because a bag holds mixed food that isn’t weighed. Example: a 600 g bakery bag gives 0.6 × 1.5 × 0.9 = 0.81 kg CO2e, estimated.
What we leave out
- Emissions avoided at landfill (leaving them out makes the number lower)
- Packaging
- Customers’ travel to the shop
- The rebound effect: money not spent on this food may be spent on something else. Studies find it can be large (51% to 90%); we don’t model it.
We assume collected food replaces food the customer would otherwise have bought.
The estimate is reported on its own. It is never netted against BeloBag’s own emissions and never called an offset.
Rounding and money
- Counts of bags and items are exact. Kilograms and CO2e are rounded down: one decimal below 10, whole numbers from 10 to 9,999, then tonnes (1.2 t).
- Money is shown per currency and never added across currencies: what customers paid, and the shops’ usual price for the same food, at most 5 times what was paid. We never say “you saved”.
Who sees which numbers
- Customers: their own numbers, in the app under Account, when signed in.
- Shops: their own numbers, in the partner app. They stay private unless the shop chooses to show a count on its BeloBag page, such as “50+ bags and items collected” (rounded down to the nearest 10, shown from 50).
- Estimated CO2e: only in Nepal for now, always marked “estimated” and linked to this page.
Your data
- A pickup’s count holds no name, phone number or address. 30 days after it counts, it is added to your totals and no longer stores your account id; it stays linked to your totals until you delete your account.
- “Download my data” includes your totals. Deleting your account deletes them; the shops’ and countries’ counts stay, with no link to you.
How we handle your data: privacy policy
Changes
When the method changes, we work out all history again under the new version and list the change here with its date.
- v1, 3 November 2026: first version.
Questions about the method: hello@belobag.com