MILAN – Every year 15.5 billion of Euros worth of food ends up in the bin, a value equivalent to 0.94 of the GPD.
A figure attributable for the most part to domestic waste which represents 4/5 of the total.
These are the estimates calculated on the basis of the “Family Diaries” tests carried out by the Ministry for the Environment with the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technologies of the University of Bologna and with SWG, in the context of the Reduce Project 2017, a year after the application of the law for the limitation of waste, the responsible use of resources and environmental sustainability, the so-called Gadda Law.
The research
In detail, food waste within the production chain is worth over 3.5 billion, that is to say from the field (946,229,325 Euros) to food production (1,111,916,133 Euros), to waste during distribution (1,444,189,543 Euros). To
this sum need to be added 12 billion of real domestic waste (recorded waste is limited to 8 billion).
The scientific data of the “Family Diaries”, carried out over the last few weeks with a statistical sample of 400 families in the whole of Italy, will be made available in the context of an international conference in February 2018, on occasion of the 5th National Day for the Prevention of Food Waste.
Every day for a week, 400 families made a note on dedicated forms of the food thrown away at every meal, with relevant reasons, along the model implemented by WRAP in the United Kingdom, which carried out the experiment on the widest absolute sample (more than 100 families).
Public awareness
In the meantime, the awareness of the waste issue grows among the public: the Waste Watcher Observatory (Last Minute Market/Swg) estimates that 7 people in 10 are aware of the new legislation and over 91% considers the issue of waste linked to food to be serious and alarming, while 81% of people declares to be aware that change must first of all take place in everyday life.
For this reason, the 2017 Zero Waste campaign, with the Reduce project, has introduced 'Waste Notes', the online downloadable weekly diary to raise family awareness of food waste.
“Waste happens first of all near us - explains the scientific manager in charge of Reduce, Luca Falasconi - The project allows us to understand that it is our everyday actions that determine the production of food waste, every day. The
fridge, the cupboard, and school canteen are where everyday perfectly good and healthy food starts its journey to the landfill”.
“Food waste is a topic on which we must first of all raise awareness of with young people, from children to generation Z millennials: because they will be leading the world - explains the scientific director of the European awareness campaign “Zero Waste” of Last Minute Market Andrea Segrè - Among Zero Waste’s priority objectives remains the proclamation of a European Year on Food Waste, a global campaign which requires capillary campaigns at least for EU countries".
by Alessandro Conte
September 20, 2017
credits: Fotolia
