Food waste

27 March 2024

Almost 90% of material resources used in the EU are lost after their first use. A lot more effort is needed to accelerate a systemic transition to a circular economy, to drastically reduce the EU’s absolute natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions, respecting the planetary boundaries and striving towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

To achieve this, the Prevent Waste coalition of European civil society organisations advocate for the improvement and enforcement of EU policies on waste prevention and product design. Any new legislative proposals and strategies, and the implementation of the existing ones, need to adhere to the EU waste hierarchy i.e. put prevention first. Reducing resource extraction, designing circular products and stimulating waste prevention all reduce GHG emissions – contributing to the EU’s decarbonisation objective.

READ OUR 10 PRIORITIES TO TRANSFORM THE EU WASTE POLICY HERE.

Food Waste

Food waste constitutes a real ethical, economic and environmental issue in Europe and worldwide. In the EU, between 88 and 140 million tonnes of food waste are generated each year for a cost estimated at 143 billion euros (FAO, 2011; FUSIONS, 2016). Moreover, food waste generates about 8% of greenhouse emissions while 43 million EU citizens cannot afford a quality meal every other day (European Commission, 2017).

Read our statements on this issue:

Food waste