Food waste dates back to Italy: at home we will go from 75 grams of food thrown away every day per person in 2023, to almost 81 grams in 2024, basically over half a kilo (566.3 grams).
This is 8.05% more waste than a year ago, for a cost of 290 euros per family per year and 126 euros per capita.
This is the photograph that emerges from the 'The Italy case' report of the Waste Watcher International Observatory, in view of the 11th National Prevention Day scheduled for Monday 5 February.
It turns out that more is wasted in cities and large municipalities (+8%) and less in small towns and those who throw away the most food are families without children (+3%) and consumers with low purchasing power (+17%) ;
a phenomenon that is more accentuated in the South (+ 4% compared to the national average) and less so in the North (- 6%).
Counting in hand, the overall food waste in Italy is worth over 13 billion: a dizzying figure that includes domestic waste, which accounts for almost 7.5 billion, distribution waste of almost 4 billion, in addition to waste in the field and in industry, much more contained.
But the issue of food waste is linked to social alarm: those who declare themselves 'poor' eat worse and waste more (+17%).
In fact, the prolonged effect of inflation lowers purchasing power and leads to food of poorer quality and more easily perishable;
1 in 2 consumers look for food close to the deadline to save money, 41% choose the discount store to the detriment of the shop, 77% have dented their savings to cover the cost of living, 28% have further cut their shopping budget food.
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