This is the result of a recent research by the environmental protection organization Greenpeace, which was published on Tuesday. The greenhouse gases emitted in this way reach around half the amount that Austrian air traffic emitted before the pandemic.
In this context, Sebastian Theissing-Matei, the agricultural expert at Greenpeace in Austria, speaks of an “everyday insanity of food waste”, which also shows an enormous potential for savings. In any case, Austria must halve food waste by 2030 due to the EU targets it supports.
Waste Prevention Action Plan
The Ministry of Climate Protection has already responded to this task with an action plan that is described as “part of a comprehensive waste prevention program”. According to the Waste Management Act, a reduction of 30 percent in the areas of trade, out-of-home consumption and private households by 2025 and by 2030 a reduction of the planned 50 percent of avoidable food waste is planned.
As an additional measure, the ministry mentioned that an agreement to avoid food waste had already been reached with eleven large trading companies. In 2020, 20,000 tons of edible food were saved and passed on to social institutions – an increase in percent compared to 2018. Another 10,000 tons were given away as animal feed. As a result, around 30 percent of the fully booked groceries were “saved” in 2020.
Greenpeace demands a mandatory throw-away quota
In addition, the Ministry of Climate Protection reminded of the supported platform “United against Waste” to save food in canteen operators with 160 partner companies and the initiative “Food is precious” to avoid waste in retail and private consumption. Food is a very precious commodity, Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) was quoted as saying: “In the summer of 2021, I set up a coordination office that will develop a comprehensive action plan against food waste by spring 2022”.
In this context, Greenpeace advocates sanctionable and ambitious measures in the action plan against food waste announced by the government. This includes a transparency offensive regarding the entire extent of avoidable food waste and a legally binding maximum throw-away quota for processors and retailers.
Uniform database is missing
From the point of view of the NGO, the food waste of meat is particularly questionable from an ethical point of view. Here animals have to lose their lives completely unnecessarily. Although the problem of food waste has been known for a long time, Austrian politicians have done far too little to combat it. Even a uniform and consistent database on food waste in Austria would be missing.
“End the toothless voluntary agreements of the last few years. The Austrian federal government must no longer shirk its responsibilities and must now quickly present an ambitious plan of action with legally binding targets for all sectors,” Theissing-Matei demands on the occasion of the turquoise-green government program recorded and currently ongoing process led by the Ministry of Climate Protection for an action plan against food waste.
Source: Nachrichten
