Some of the food waste occurs at the production/distribution level, with growers and food stores throwing away imperfect produce as unsellable. Here, roadside stand in Vaud, September 2012
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss households are throwing away 320 grams of food per person, per day, says the WFF based on a new study done by ETH, the Zurich federal polytechnic university. It amounts to 2 million tons of waste a year, much of which is avoidable. The cost of unconsumed food per household is CHF500-1,000 a year.
The garbage is equivalent to 43 million standard 35 litre garbage sacks and if piled together would be nearly seven times higher than the country’s tallest building, the Prime Tower in Zurich. Some 24 percent of it is vegetables and lettuces, 17 percent is drinks, 14 percent fruit.
Swiss households account for 45 percent of wasted food; restaurants, by comparison, only 5 percent.
The WWF 11 October published a lively interactive slide show on food waste in Switzerland.
Tips from the WWF to reduce the waste:
- Check your refrigerator before shopping for food
- Plan your menus and make a shopping list accordingly
- Use leftovers to prepare meals
- Put fresh food into sealed containers or in the refrigerator to increase their shelf livres
- Buy fresh foods frequently, planning ahead, rather than doing weekly shopping for supplies that often then go to waste
- Taste products that have gone beyond their sell-by date before throwing them away, to make sure they really are no longer edible
- Take green rubbish to your commune’s biogas production or compost areas
- Throw away foods in garbage bags, not down the sink: sorting solids at water treatment plants requires extra energy.
