Want Leftovers? There's An App For That

Leftover Swap users can barter or give away leftovers

One man's leftovers are another man's meal, thanks to one smartphone app.

Leftover Swap, launched in August, lets users barter or give away leftovers, according to NPR, which first reported on the app.

Have leftover Chinese food? Snap a photo of it and post to Leftover Swap, which distributes the picture in your geographic area. Users then have the option of trading you for the Chinese food or simply taking it off your hands.

Leftover Swap certainly isn't the only unusual app on the fringes of the communal marketplace.

The Depop app lets you sell items through series of pictures posted on the app — it's Instagram meets eBay on the open virtual garage sale exchange.

There's also TaskRabbit, which rents out your spare time to perform items from other people's to-do lists, whether it's doing somebody else's laundry to waiting in a line for them.

But people taking, let alone bartering, leftovers?

"It's obviously not for everybody," said Leftover Swap co-founder Dan Newman, who came up with the idea along with Bryan Summersett when they were roommates at the University of Michigan in 2010. "But for as many people who seemingly have a problem with it, there's people who love the idea."

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