In the frame of the national elections, Foodsharing Luxembourg supports the One Planet Luxembourg manifesto to ask that its demands are discussed in the election campaign and taken into account in the coalition negotiations that will follow the municipal and national elections.
As a citizen, you can also support the manifesto.
We were accompanied by Journal for this article.
Press Release Foodsharing Luxembourg, 21st March 2023
On the occasion of this year’s national elections and the urgent nature of the climate crisis, Foodsharing Luxembourg a.s.b.l. publishes demands on Luxembourg’s policy to combat food loss and waste.
“Around a third of all food produced worldwide is not eaten! [1]” says Michelle Kleyr, co-founder of Foodsharing Luxembourg, “The resources it contains, such as working hours, water, transport, etc., are also wasted.” This has devastating effects on the environment and climate. Daniel Waxweiler, co-founder of the association, explains: “According to the IPCC report of 2019, between 2010 and 2016 alone, food loss and waste were responsible for 8 to 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions.”
Michelle Kleyr points to the striking national situation: “In Luxembourg, according to the latest Eurostat figures, this corresponds to an average of 147 kg per person per year.[2] Two-thirds of these are generated at home, well above the already high EU average of 127 kg.” There are effective solutions along the value chain, many of which could be implemented relatively easily by politicians. Other EU countries, such as France, Italy, Romania, Spain and the Czech Republic, have already introduced legal measures against this. Daniel Waxweiler emphasises: “We urgently need an improved legal situation against food loss and waste in Luxembourg!”
Our 9 demands were published on our website in February and sent to environment and agriculture ministries as well as to all parties.
Several Luxembourg organisations have already expressed their public support for our demands. The list is constantly updated on our website.
[1] United Nations on food loss and waste: https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-food-waste-day
[2] IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land, August 2019, Chapter 5: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2019/11/08_Chapter-5.pdf
[3] EU food loss and waste figures 2020 published by Eurostat, 2022: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20220925-2
RESTwithEU launches its Open Call programme, where restaurants, startups and solutions providers from all Europe come together to solve the restaurant sector challenges.
From 21 February until 31 March 2023
(in German)
End of the "Distribution Days": Project against food waste has been stopped
Today 100,7 published an radio interview on the end of the Distribution Days.
We have some not so good news. Foodsharing Luxembourg on the 31st January 2023 made the hard decision that the Distribution Days will cease to operate.
The Distribution Days project faced internal problems and according to EU legislation are classified as a ‘business’, which meant they needed to comply with food standard regulations, which were difficult for a voluntary-run association.
The Distribution Days lead people to believe the whole of Foodsharing Luxembourg is a charity. Our main focus is the environmental aspect of food loss and waste, and we don’t want to compete with the many established charities providing professional support. We understand this perception during these difficult times, however this was never our goal. Our long-term aim is to have laws tackling food loss and food waste, so that the amounts of food that are thrown away are dramatically reduced.
Also, the Distribution Days were not in line with their goal of distributing large quantities any more. The main reason is that some businesses have now dramatically reduced their quantities, so this food could easily be shared between Foodsavers. We as an association are happy about this reduction in food waste!
We recognise the huge contribution of the Distribution Days. There has been a lot of energy, passion and time put into them. We would like to thank everyone helping out at or coming to Distribution Days for their contribution to our vision to make sure that “all edible foods in Luxembourg are consumed”!
Our Foodsaving project will take over picking up and redistributing the food designated for the Distribution Days. If you want to join us as a Foodsaver, register. Our next information sessions will be announced in the upcoming weeks and are open for everybody interested to become active in Foodsharing Luxembourg.
After our first call, our working group “Political work” at Foodsharing Luxembourg received interesting input. In addition to the situation in canteens and shops, we were e.g. told that subsidies are paid for the sowing of potatoes, not for harvesting them, and thus for reasons of profitability they often rot away meaninglessly on the fields. As your insight into different areas is really helpful for our work to improve the national legislation on food loss and waste, we extend our call.
Where do you see problems in the system? Are you aware of mistakes that lead to waste? Please contact us by November 6 at moien@foodsharing.lu.
All entries are processed anonymously.
We need you!
The working group “Political Work” of Foodsharing Luxembourg is currently working on demands for an improvement of the national legislation on food loss and waste. The starting point should be an inventory.
For this, we would like your help! Where do the problems in the system lie? Are you aware of current failings that lead to food loss or food waste? Do you see patterns or contradictions in your everyday life, at work or at home that lead to waste?
Let us know at moien@foodsharing.lu by 15 October.
All submissions will be processed anonymously.
(United Nations, UNRIC) [in French]
“On the occasion of the International Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day, various associations in the Benelux region and France explain to us how they help to limit this waste”
