Companies and Ets network in the fight against waste

Leveraging solidarity to counter waste and support the circular economy. This is the strategy adopted, since a few years ago, by many Italian companies that, in cooperation with non-profit associations and Third Sector organisations, donate food stocks, inventories and unsold products to give them a second life and help those in need.

A practice facilitated, in the first instance, by a precise legislative framework (the Gadda law on the donation of surpluses) that, since its entry into force to date, has yielded good results. "Law 166/2016 provided a clear framework, simplifying the bureaucratic burden and defining the beneficiaries. And this has made it possible to move from a situation in which donations took place mainly to deal with emergencies to an organisation of processes that permanently allocate surpluses for social purposes," explains Gianluca Salvatori, secretary general of Fondazione Valore, set up on the initiative of a series of partners - including Intesa San Paolo, Fondazione Banco Alimentare, Unpli and Fondazione Messina - to convert the rule into an ordinary tool in the dynamics of businesses and Ets. And working to transform into value what would otherwise only be waste and cost. "The agri-food sector was the first to seize the opportunities of the new framework, as demonstrated by the valuable work of the banks. Now we need to expand to other sectors: the needs of the most fragile categories are not limited to food and a dignified existence requires different durable goods'.

Encouraging companies to join redistribution projects - voluntarily and autonomously or, in the case of those supported by the Valore Foundation, through a hub that connects them with the non-profit organisation - are benefits of different kinds. As Salvatori notes, 'donation is worthwhile both from an economic point of view, i.e. lower storage and disposal costs and tax advantages in terms of VAT, and from a reputational point of view, in terms of positive contribution to social and environmental sustainability indicators'.

On the beneficiary front, there is no prevailing typology. "In this first phase of its life, the Foundation acted as a connector between businesses and the Third Sector: food banks, voluntary service centres, pro-loco, with which hundreds of small neighbourhood realities in most parts of Italy were reached," Salvatori explains. "Gradually, medium-sized realities are being added, such as foundations and social cooperatives. On the whole, the donated goods reach different subjects: centres for fragile people, shelters for the homeless, organisations dedicated to assistingelderly or minors, social work or job placement'. As for the geographical distribution, the map of donations "shows more dynamic areas and less active areas" because it is bound, "on the one hand, to the concentration of the Ets, and on the other to that of the large production and distribution companies, which are the most inclined - above all due to a greater knowledge of the legislative and fiscal procedures - to donate".

As Salvatori recounts, 2025 was characterised by three projects. "With Amazon Italia we distributed more than 80,000 goods to the Ets; thanks to Esselunga we destined non-food products worth about three million; with Snam we reused for social purposes a large amount of discarded furniture for the move to the new headquarters.