Food waste is reaching extremely high levels and those evaluations also include the extra calories consumed in comparison to our daily needs: this also is wasted food. This is what the researchers of the British Universities of Edimburgh and York stated, after elaborating the statistics from FAO, published on Agricultural Systems.
The result is a clear picture of the dangers for the humanity, if we will not be able to find a solution to solve its bad habits[1].
After all, the relationship with food and waste reflects us: it talks about our habits and the beliefs that lead our daily actions. In front of our fridge or our trashcan we could be experts or incoherent, careful or big wasters, careless or savers[2].
Those are the qualities that, according to a research from the Waste Watchers Observatory, describe and gather the Italian families into 6 different tribes.
13 billion Euros have been wasted in our houses in 12 months, which means 75% of National wasted food on 16 billion, in a Country where millions of people are poor. We’re split in two, also about trash: luckily, with a majority (57%) of people that takes really care about the problem and a 43% of people that doesn’t care about it.
The “good” Italians are the ones of the Virtuous tribe, which are wasting half of the food in comparison to the national average, 15 Euros per month. They are the 22% of the population, they buy stuff carefully, they freeze their leftovers not to throw them away because, according to the research, they conceive food waste as immoral and dangerous for the environment.
Next to them, the Careful ones, 28% of the families. They waste a quarter less than the average with their responsible attitude, but they’re a little bit distracted. Their values are the same of the Virtuous ones, but they follow them less strictly.
7% of the Country is Part of the Savers, careful for necessity. They don’t care too much about the environment, but they have low incomes, that’s the reason why they waste 20% less food than the average to save money
On the other side, the Big Wasters, the biggest tribes among the Incoherents. They’re the 27% of the population, and although being convinced about the importance of the environment, they get distracted and buy too much stuff, they cook and don’t eat, they let food expire, they buy things on sale and let them go bad. In one word, they fill up their trash can with good food: 25% more than the average.
The Wasters tribe, 12%, doesn’t instead understand its responsibility, it has no interest on this topic and, having average incomes, doesn’t conceive grocery shopping as a way to avoid waste. So, it wastes one and a half more food than the average.
The last tribe is the smallest and most dangerous one. They are the Careless, 4% of the Italians, and they aren’t absolutely interested in ecology, environment, solidarity and waste. They throw food away easily and with any afterthought: 60% more than the national average.
But things are changing. Since September 2016, a law to fight food waste and support donations is active. An important project, that aims to safeguard our Country, that Probios promotes and supports directly, through donations to associations like the Food Bank, with products with short BBDs that can’t be distributed in stores anymore.
