Food waste, Italia black jersey in Europe according to Waste watcher
Data from the Cross country report 2025: 1.05 billion tonnes of food are wasted every year in the world, equivalent to one third of global production
by Food Editor
In comparison with other European countries, the weekly waste per capita of Italians is 555.8 g, more than the French (459.9 g), Spanish (446.5 g), Dutch (469.6 g) and Germans (512.9 g). We are last in this ranking, with about 100 grams more food thrown away per person than a Spaniard or a Frenchman, as confirmed by the data of the Cross country report 2025 by Waste watcher international, released on the occasion of the 13thNational Day for the Prevention of Food Waste.
However, there is one positive note: from 2015 to date, in Italia per capita weekly waste has fallen by almost 100 grams. Although awareness of the link between waste and environmental impact is increasing, we are still far from the 2030 target of reducing domestic waste to 369.7 grams per week.
According to the Food waste index report 2024 of the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), 1.05 billion tonnes of food are wasted every year in the world, equivalent to one third of global production. An unsustainable ethical paradox: while each person throws away almost 80 kg of food per year, more than 670 million people go hungry. Waste also weighs on the environment: it is responsible for almost 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and consumes a quarter of the fresh water used for agriculture. In terms of emissions, if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States.
In Italia since February 2025, waste has fallen by 63.9 grams to 554 grams per capita per week. And this would make Italians a more virtuous people, yet the amount of food that is thrown away is still very significant: translated into value as much as7 billion euro. As a result, we are still far from the 2030 UN goal of reducing waste by 50%. Driving Italia towards improvement are the boomer households - with members born between 1946 and 1964 - who waste 352 grams per week. Still far behind, on the other hand, are the young people of Generation Z, with a quota of 799 grams of waste per week, who are, however, entrusted with the task of literalising the country on the subject of new technologies #wastezero.
These two generations, by relating, can overcome the challenge of food waste, according to Andrea Segrè, scientific director of the WasteWatcher International-Campaign Zero Waste Observatory. Boomers today are the locomotive of prevention, while Generation Z is more fragile on an organisational level but possesses a decisive capital: mastery of digital tools and readiness to change. "It is here," Segrè emphasises, "that intergenerational intelligence is born: when experience meets technology, when the practical knowledge of older people is translated into new languages by younger people. Only by fostering this exchange can we really halve food waste within the next four years'.
