Local markets: have you noticed how much food is wasted?

WASTE IN DISTRICT MARKETS

Who attends a local market, any local market in our cities, can confirm the waste that is consumed every day: a huge quantity of still edible food, first of all fruits and veg, which promptly ends up in the garbage. And then carte, plastic bags and polystyrene e cardboard boxes, which transform the space, once cleared of stalls, into an open-air landfill. Until the garbage trucks arrive (if they arrive at all). This daily disposal operation incurs a significant cost, and further waste.

ALSO READ: Turin volunteers who collect leftover food from markets and give it to the poor

RECUP MILAN

Can this waste be avoided? It can and must be done. And in some cities, someone is already managing to do it. This is the case of Milan, where there are 94 open-air local markets. The association is at work here every day Recover, with around thirty volunteers (students, pensioners and unemployed) who, towards the end of the working day, go between the stalls and collect the goods, up to 450 kilos of produce for each market.

Once the fruit and vegetables are collected, they are delivered. Recup is connected to several local volunteer organizations that provide assistance to families in need, so the food ends up in the right hands. The Milanese experiment also works in Turin and he left to Rome, at the Alberone market. The key is to network with these experiences. Perhaps by involving local councils and associations. Imagine how the waste landscape at local markets would change if every neighborhood had a mechanism for recovering unsold food destined for the garbage cans.

(The cover image and those in the gallery are taken from the association's Facebook page Recover)

TO KNOW MORE: Seven solidarity refrigerators have opened in Bari. What are we waiting for to do the same throughout Italy?

RECOVERY OF LEFTOVER FOOD IN DISTRICT MARKETS

The same goes for paper, cardboard, and plastic bags. Here too, it's about making initiatives already in place in Italy go viral, like the association Precarious Edition from Palermo. It's a women's cooperative that travels around the markets of the Sicilian capital and collects all the packaging that needs to be disposed of. They then transform it into recycled envelopes and letterhead: basically, from the fight against waste in local markets, a small business was born. Highly artisanal and of excellent quality.

(The video is taken from the Recup association website)

HOW TO SHOP WITHOUT WASTE:

• Shop at the farmer's, choosing your supplier through this site. And respect the seasons.
• Discount shopping: when it's really worth it. Here are the products to choose from and the real discounts.
• Grocery shopping lists and cooking leftovers: here's how to combat food waste.