City of Milan receives the Earthshot Prize for reducing food waste

The City of Milan is emerging as a world leader in its efforts and ambitions to reduce food waste and recover non-consumed food and as such improve food security. Therefore Milan received the Earthshot Prize, awarded by Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. So what exactly are the Milanese doing?

The Italian city has enforced a pioneering scheme to combat food waste. It is the first big city to do so. Through its Local Food Waste Hubs, non-consumed food from all over the city is recovered, e.g. from supermarkets, restaurants, schools, universities, offices, canteens, etc, and donated to charities. This way, 130 tonnes of food per year that would otherwise be thrown away, is recover. this is equivalent to 350 kg per day, the equivalent of an estimated 260,000 meals per year, as published on the EarthshotPrize website this month (Oct 2021).   

The City of Milan launched the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact in 2015, which is an international agreement among cities from all over the world, committed "to develop sustainable food systems that are inclusive, resilient, safe and diverse, that provide healthy and affordable food to all people in a human rights-based framework, that minimize waste and conserve biodiversity while adapting to and mitigating impacts of climate change".

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The Earthshot Prize is an initiative of The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge. Each recepient of the prize will receive 1 million British pounds to continue developing ideas and using them to reduce the impacts of the planetary crisis.

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K.B.

Sources: 

Milan Urban Food Policy Pact:

https://www.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/

Earthshot Prize for the City of Milan:

https://earthshotprize.org/london-2021/the-earthshot-prize-winners-finalists/waste-free/