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:
- SAFE’s response to the EC public consultation on Food Waste Reduction Targets, October 2021
- SAFE’s report on plastic use in food deliveries during the COVID-19 crisis, April 2021
- SAFE’s policy report on food donations, December 2020.
- NGO Joint letter to Commissioner Kyriakides on the EC commitment to reduce Food Waste in the Farm to Fork Strategy, July 2020.
- SAFE’s and Feedback’s joint policy brief on EU food waste measurement methodology, 2019
- NGO Joint letter to MS representatives on the EU delegated act establishing a common methodology for food waste measurement, 2019
- SAFE’s Position paper on the delegated act a Common methodology and minimum requirements for the uniform measurement of levels of food waste, 2018
- NGO Joint letter to the European Commission on the EU delegated act on the measurement of food waste, 2018
- NGO Joint Statement on EU Directive 2008/98/EC on waste, 2017
