Something we can all agree on? Prioritising food waste reduction

Voters in Europe are angry right now. Some are angry that their political leaders have called an election, whilst others are angry that their leaders have not. Voters are angry that their governments haven’t done enough to tackle climate change, whilst others are angry that their governments are doing too much to protect the environment.

In a world increasingly polarised and divided, there are few things which the majority of people can all agree on.

Yet, if I was to tell you that the average EU citizen created 131 kg of food waste, totalling over 58 million tonnes altogether in 2021, the amount of which costs around €132 bn, you would struggle to find someone who would disagree with the absurdity of this.

To help visualise this, 130 kg is the same weight as a large fridge, a three-seater sofa or a small female grizzly bear. And that’s how much food waste is being generated all across the EU per person and per year.

Of course, it’s not generated in the same places. Roughly 54% is generated in households, amounting to 70 kg per capita, while the rest is lost and wasted in the supply chain, including on primary production on farms (11 kg), manufacturing (28 kg), restaurants and food services (12 kg), retail and other distribution (9 kg). That’s why the responsibility to act on food waste prevention is a whole-of-society effort.

But, I hear you say, won’t food just decompose, and doesn’t it revitalise our soils? In controlled situations, yes. The sad fact is that if you throw your banana peel out into a bush or in the woods, it won’t just magically decompose by itself in a safe way. Even worse: when organic materials are left untreated in landfills, they become a huge problem for the environment through their methane emissions.

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas (GHG) and is responsible for a third of the global warming experienced to date. It is produced by natural and anthropogenic biological processes during the decomposition or fermentation of organic Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP) and warms the planet over 80 times more than CO2 over a 20-year period. More than half of global methane emissions are caused by humans, primarily through agriculture, energy and the waste sectors, which have already contributed to a gross temperature increase of 0.5°C. In the EU, the waste sector is the second largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions, contributing around 27%.

The main strategies to reduce methane emissions from waste are organic waste reduction first and foremost, followed by ensuring these materials are separately collected and then effectively treated through, ideally, composting or anaerobic digestion. In Europe, the biggest and easiest way to reduce our waste methane emissions is to install quality reduction and collection schemes for food waste, ensuring dramatically fewer volumes of our food end up in landfills or incinerators.

This Sunday, 29 September is Food Waste Awareness Day. With over half of food waste occurring at the household level, we first must address what we, as individuals, do with our food, and what community and municipal infrastructure can be made available to prevent food loss.

In 2015, the EU and its Member States signed up to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030. In 2024, the EU seems to be far from achieving this goal, and yet, progress is underway as the EU is now bound to introduce one of the world’s first legally binding targets to reduce food waste. However, the proposed law, still under negotiation, falls short of the SDG 12.3 commitment of 50% reduction. Over 65 non-profit and business organisations from 22 EU countries have, therefore, called on policy-makers to introduce legally binding targets to halve food waste by 2030, from farm to fork.

To address the factors that contribute to food waste, we need to see greater cross-supply chain cooperation, shortening supply chains, ensuring all food gets harvested, avoiding oversized portions in restaurants, improving date labelling, avoiding standardised packaging, supporting food donations and raising consumer awareness about better food preservation.

Methane emissions are escaping into the atmosphere at an alarming rate, and they’re escaping the attention of policy-makers in Europe just as quickly. This is why, at Zero Waste Europe, with the help of our European network of communities and experts, we’re supporting multi-level interventions that truly work to transform our wasteful food supply chain issues. Numerous large manufacturers are already leading the way, achieving waste reduction of up to 50% by 2030.

But it’s not just up to manufacturers. Governments must also let voters know their votes are not going down the drain, and that they’re tackling the big issues facing us today. Cities and businesses can get a head start and implement measures that stimulate food waste prevention, collection and management to begin with. But to really accelerate the progress we need, EU-wide legally-binding targets can guide the way and ensure every country is doing its fair share to address this challenging task ahead.

The views expressed in this #CriticalThinking article reflect those of the author(s) and not of Friends of Europe.