Food waste: we throw away 112 euros per person a year. But the figure is improving
Waste Watcher report: an 11 per cent fall in the amount of food thrown away each week – less than 500 grams per person – but there is still much to be done to tackle a loss of 6.6 billion a year
Key points
Food waste in Italian households amounts to 6.6 billion euros a year, 25.74 kilograms of food per person, equivalent to 112 euros: a phenomenon made even more unsustainable by a stressed agri-food system, where the climate crisis and geopolitical instability are driving up production costs and pushing consumer prices higher.
However, there is also some positive news: the latest figures highlight a positive turnaround in Italia, which has fallen for the first time below the psychological threshold of 500 grams of food thrown away per capita per week, 493.7 grams to be precise, representing a net decrease of 11.17 per cent compared with last year’s figure of 555.8 grams. This progress brings the country closer to the target set by the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, which is 369.73 grams per week.
The Waste Watcher report
This is the picture painted by the new Waste Watcher Report, promoted by the Zero Waste campaign and presented on the occasion of the 7th UN International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste.
According to the report, those with fewer resources waste more food and a proportionally larger share of their income. “Food waste thus becomes not only an economic and environmental cost,” explained Andrea Segrè, scientific director of the Observatory “but a real multiplier of inequality.”
Holiday homes and restaurants
According to the report, in order to overcome this challenge, it is necessary to identify all sources of waste. The survey also focused on the behaviour of tourists in holiday homes, finding that 66 per cent of guests manage to consume all the food they have purchased, demonstrating a responsible attitude.
Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly common in restaurants to use a doggy bag to take leftovers home. The report also shines a spotlight on the differences between Americans and Italians: the former waste around 775.7 grams of food per week, almost 300 more than the latter; in the US, Italian-Americans stand out in particular: 42 per cent throw food away at least once a week, compared with the national average of 29 per cent, even though the vast majority (87 per cent) recognise the anti-waste values of Italian culinary tradition.
