Prevention Programs - The Food Waste Challenge

Hubert Reisinger, 29.05.2012 1

Copyright of Photo: Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz/Nadja Meister

Contents

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From EU directive 2008/98/EC to Austrian Food Waste

Prevention Program

Good Practices in Austria

Results of an EU project (international experience + Food

Waste Prevention Guidelines)

Waste Prevention in Waste Frame Directive (WFD) (2008/98/EC)

Waste Hierarchy

2 Preparing for Reuse

3 Recycling

4 Other Recovery

5 Disposal

1 Prevention

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Waste Prevention in WFD (2)

Waste Prevention Programs to be prepared by EU Member

States by 12.12.2013

Purpose: De-couple economic growth from environmental

impacts of waste generation

Contents of Program:

(National) Objectives

Measures (from Annex IV or other measures)

Benchmarks (indicators, targets) for monitoring success and

efficiency of measures

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Waste Prevention Program in the Federal Waste Management Plan 2011

Public Administration

(Federal, regional)

Consensus Finding Process

Year 2011 Program

Experts Stakeholders

Year 2006 Strategy

Consensus Finding Process

Consensus Finding

WS 3: Prioritization of Measures

WS 2: Strategy Definitions

WS 1+: Trends and Visions

WS 1: Objectives - Priorities

WS 4: Bundling Measures

WS 5: Evaluation

Analyses on Specific Measures

Studies on certain waste streams

and intervention measures

Frame Conditions

Final Formulation of Strategy

Technical/Socio-Economic Analyses

Note: WS = Workshop

WS 6: Strategy Revisited

Focus Areas

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Strategy 2006 Waste Prevention

Program 2011

Prevention and Recycling of Construction and Demolition Waste

Product related analyses

Ban of Ni-Cd-Accumulators

Pollutant limitation with incineration

Reusable packaging

Services instead of products

Prevention of Construction and Demolition Waste

Re-Use

Waste prevention in enterprises

Waste prevention in households

Current Problems: critical metals, food, lifestyles

Food waste prevention

Annex IV Dir 2008/98/EC

Why focus on food waste prevention?

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High life cycle impacts through:

Greenhouse gas emissions

Resource depletion

Acidification and

Eutrophication

High waste prevention potential

Un-sustainable use of food

Share in residual waste

(wet):

6-10 % originally

packaged food

6-10 % food in opened

original packaging

10 – 20 % leftovers

Source: Wassermann & Schneider 2005

9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Obesity with grown-ups in %

Women

Men

Source: OECD 2010

Causes of food waste generaton

In retail:

All products available till the last opening minute

„Use best before“ dates are on the safe side

In restaurants/large kitchens

Better too big than too small portions

In households:

Lack of awareness, what we actually do

No time for optimisation purchase enough that the fridge never gets

empty

Purchase with appetite (purchase lists are not cool)

Last in – first out

Large packaging (10 for the price of 3)

Scope of Food Waste Prevention Program

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Food Industries Food Processing

Food Trade Food Retail

Private Food Services

(restaurants…)

Private Households

Less fo

od

waste

Public Food Services

(hospitals…)

Frame Conditions

Prevention Measures for Production, Retail, Private Services

Training for employees

Disseminate best-practice examples (internet-platform)

Introduction of incentive systems for enterprises for

prevention and donation of surplus food

Solving legal question on the donation of surplus food

Guide “Donation of food to social installations”

Prevention Measures for Households

Raise awareness and inform on concrete alternatives by

Information materials

Events

Pilotprojects on how to create frame conditions which

drive towards efficient consumption of food

Prevention Measures for Public Sector

Integration of topic food waste prevention in training of

teachers and in textbooks

Guidelines on food waste prevention in public kitchens

and public procurement

http://www.bundesabfallwirtschaftsplan.at/dms/bawp/BAWP_Band_1_EN.pdf

Selected Good Practice Regional Programmes

Food Waste Prevention in Lower Austrian Residential Neighborhoods

8 waste management associations, university, 2 schools

Measures (awareness campaign):

Projects in schools: use of leftovers (recipes

www.haushaltsmanager.at), food and climate, comparison

Austria/UK/USA…..

Press conferences + special reports and spots on TV &

radio

Folders, shopping lists, stickers

Face to face meetings in selected neighborhoods

Good Practice Initiative 2 - natuerlich weniger Mist Vienna

Regarding food information on: Organic (bio) food & Food labelling

Food storage

Efficient buying of food (use of a shopping list..)

Waste Prevention in Industries Financial support for waste prevention investments

cleaner production auditing module

EcoBuy Vienna: lists of environmental criteria for public procurement

Waste Prevention in Hospitals

http://wenigermist.natuerlichwien.at/

Good Practice Initiative 3 - Team Austria Table

Volunteers can register to Team Austria for helping in

emergencies

12-13% of the Austrian population are threatened by

poverty

Team Austria collects „un-sellable food“ from retailers and

distribute to social markets or social poor

Cooperation of radio, red-cross, social markets and retailers

some 390 volunteers every week distribute around 20

tonnes of food better nutrition of 10,000 adults and

children

http://oe3.orf.at/teamoesterreich/stories/511376/

EU-Project “(Bio-) Waste Prevention and Inidicators”

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Barriers identified in EU-Member State waste prevention so far

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Behaviour changes are needed with few immediate, tangible benefits

Working with people is resource intensive

On a global market a single stakeholder can only influence a small part

Success Factors

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Active participation of people and organisations

Waste generation needs to be expensive

Gain experience via well-defined trial projects, followed by national spread

Awards for continuous improvements are better than one-off awards

National targets may provide strong incentives, however, it is difficult to set an effective target

Guideline on Preparing Food Waste Prevention Programmes

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Overview on current practices and challenges

Approaches to food waste prevention

Guidance from analysis of situation to selection of measures

Guidance on implementation and monitoring

http://biowaste-prevention.eu-smr.eu/

Conclusions

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Waste Prevention is

Primarily about people and their behaviour

Secondarily (but not negligible) about applied sciences,

engineering, systems and markets

Contact & Information

Hubert Reisinger

Tel: 0043-1-31304-8987,

Email: hubert.reisinger@umweltbundesamt.at

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Umweltbundesamt www.umweltbundesamt.at