Updated on\u00a028 September 2025<\/b><\/p>\n
The latest\u00a0UNEP Food Waste Index 2024<\/b><\/a>\u00a0reports (for the most recent year available,\u00a02022<\/b>)\u00a01.05 billion tonnes<\/b>\u00a0of food wasted worldwide.\u00a060%<\/b>\u00a0of waste occurs in households,\u00a028%<\/b>\u00a0in food service, and\u00a012%<\/b>\u00a0in retail.<\/p>\n In Europe,\u00a0Eurostat<\/b>\u00a0estimates\u00a059.2 million tonnes<\/b>\u00a0in 2022<\/a>, with households responsible for\u00a054%<\/b>. In 2025, the EU reached a political agreement on binding 2030 targets:\u00a0\u201310%<\/b>\u00a0in processing\/manufacturing and\u00a0\u201330% per capita<\/b>\u00a0jointly across retail, restaurants, food service and households. These are the first measurable European targets on the issue.<\/p>\n Food waste: Italy above the European average<\/b><\/p>\n In Italy, according to the international\u00a0Waste Watcher Observatory<\/b><\/a>, average food waste per citizen stands at\u00a0555.8 grams per week<\/b>, i.e. more than\u00a028.9 kg per year<\/b>. This represents an\u00a018.7%<\/b>\u00a0decrease compared to 2024, but it still exceeds the European average and remains far from the\u00a0369.7 grams per week<\/b>\u00a0target set for 2030.<\/p>\n The most wasted foods are fresh fruit, bread, vegetables and salad. The cost along the supply chain is estimated at around\u00a0\u20ac14 billion per year<\/b>.<\/p>\n Throwing away food means throwing away water, land, energy and money<\/b><\/p>\n Beyond the social impact, there is a climate one: when it ends up in landfills, food generates methane. The\u00a0EPA<\/b><\/a>\u00a0estimates that in the United States\u00a058%<\/b>\u00a0of \u201cfugitive\u201d methane from municipal waste comes from food waste (about\u00a055 million tonnes of CO\u2082e per year<\/b>, 2020 data). The order of magnitude helps explain why reducing waste is a climate lever that should not be underestimated.<\/p>\n Water.<\/b>\u00a0Food produced but not consumed \u201cembeds\u201d about\u00a0250 km\u00b3<\/b>\u00a0of blue water (surface and groundwater) each year: the equivalent of\u00a0three times<\/b>\u00a0the volume of Lake Geneva. Source:\u00a0FAO<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Land and biodiversity.<\/b>\u00a0Nearly\u00a01.4 billion hectares<\/b>\u00a0of land are used to produce food that is ultimately wasted\u2014almost a third of the world\u2019s agricultural land\u2014creating avoidable pressure on ecosystems, deforestation and species loss. Source:\u00a0Waste Watcher<\/b><\/p>\n Nature and pollution (EU\/UN perspective).<\/b>\u00a0Beyond climate impacts, food waste drives nature loss and pollution along the supply chain (agricultural inputs, energy, transport), with a global economic cost estimated at around\u00a0$1 trillion per year<\/b>. Source:\u00a0UNEP \u2013 UN Environment Programme<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Reducing waste, therefore, is not only an ethical gesture: it is one of the most concrete actions we can take to protect the environment, resources and our future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Italy, according to the international Waste Watcher Observatory, the average food waste per citizen stands at 555.8 grams per week, or more than 28.9 kg per year. This represents a decrease of 18.7% compared to 2024, but it continues to exceed the European average and remains far from the target of 369.7 grams per week set for 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[56,50,53],"class_list":["post-68357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-protection","tag-food-waste","tag-pollution","tag-water"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68357"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68361,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68357\/revisions\/68361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}