One year after the opening of the first food surplus storage and redistribution centre — which recovers food from canteens and supermarkets and donates it to those most in need — Milan's deputy mayor announces the opening of a second anti-waste hub.
The first neighbourhood hub against food waste in via Borsieri in Milan is celebrating its first anniversary with two pieces of good news. The first is in the numbers, which speak for themselves about the project's success; the second is the announcement of a new food surplus storage and redistribution centre in Milan's municipio 3, at via Bassini 26. And that's not all: "The ambition we had at the outset is taking shape," explains the city's deputy mayor with responsibility for Food policy, Anna Scavuzzo. "We have launched the second hub, we are consolidating two more, and by the end of our term we aim to honour our commitment across all nine municipi." In addition to the Comune di Milano, the initiative involves Assolombarda, the Banco alimentare della Lombardia, the programma Qubì run by Fondazione Cariplo, and the Politecnico di Milano.
The numbers, then, say it all: twelve months after the first anti-waste hub opened, 77 tonnes of food have been saved, worth 308,000 euros. But what happens to the surplus? The equivalent of 154,000 meals has been redistributed, through local neighbourhood networks, to those most in need: a total of 1,300 households, or around 3,950 people.
"A fine example of collaboration and synergy between the public and private sectors," Anna Scavuzzo continues. Following an awareness-raising process, Assolombarda identified and engaged a number of companies: the first organisations to join were Siemens, Maire Tecnimont, Pirelli, Number1, Pellegrini, Samsung and Armando Testa — those from the Isola neighbourhood — which donate 75 per cent of the food surplus they produce for the benefit of twenty-one local non-profit organisations. "We are trying to widen the pool," explains Assolombarda's director general, Alessandro Scarabelli, "and the second hub will involve other member companies of ours that are already ready to support the initiative."
The plan, beyond its strong ethical and social impact, undoubtedly has an environmental one too: in a year of hub activity, 77,000 cubic metres of water and 240 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions have been saved. Figures that give grounds for optimism, given that "we have managed to build a replicable model for other parts of Milan," explains Marco Melacini, professor of Logistics and scientific director of the Osservatorio food sustainability at the Politecnico di Milano; "a model that brings together the centres of excellence already present in the area and not only collects and distributes surpluses, but also introduces a waste measurement system that allows the organisations involved to progressively improve the process."
The effect for donor companies translates into a reduction in Tari (of 20 per cent) and VAT. The economic dimension is naturally far from negligible either: "Consider that food waste is worth 1 per cent of Italian GDP, that is, 15 billion euros," says Assolombarda's director general, Scarabelli.
The road ahead is uphill, but it appears to be the right one. Especially at an individual level, because in our own small way we can — indeed, we must! — all do our part. Lombardy's residents seem to be well on their way towards redemption, judging by the first 2020 monitoring report from the Osservatorio nazionale waste watcher run by Last minute market with Swg, promoted by Whirlpool and dedicated to Lombardy, where awareness appears to be more deeply rooted than elsewhere in Italy. Here, one in two residents throws food away less than once a month, and only 4 per cent say they discard food several times a week, compared with 7 per cent of Italians overall. For 69 per cent of Lombardy's residents the solution is mindful shopping, and for 62 per cent it is freezing leftovers.