The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) has launched a public consultation today (Thursday, January 27) on Ireland’s draft National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap.
The roadmap will set out a series of actions to ultimately halve our food waste by 2030.
The DECC said that food waste is a global problem that has environmental, social and economical consequences. The growing, processing and transporting of food all use significant resources.
How does food waste occur?
Food waste can arise for a number of reasons, at different points in the food supply chain.
These points include: Primary production; manufacturing and processing; restaurants and food services; retail and distribution; and in homes.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that Ireland generated about 1.1 million tonnes of food waste in 2019.
Tackling food waste is one of the key steps we can take to achieve sustainability, to help combat climate change, and to support the transition to a circular economy, according to the DECC.
Ireland has committed to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030 – in line with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The development of a National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap is aimed at steering the country towards this goal.
Government action
The development of a National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap is included as a commitment in Ireland’s Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy and the government’s 2021 Climate Action Plan.
Commenting on the opening of the consultation, Minister of State with special responsibility for communications and circular economy, Ossian Smyth, said:
“Food waste prevention is a climate action that we can all undertake, as part of our everyday behaviour. Every individual, every household, every business and every organisation has a role to play.
“Ireland’s National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap will bring action on food waste prevention, across key sectors in the food supply chain, together in a coherent manner.
“It will provide a pathway to achieve the goal of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030,” he added.
Focus of the roadmap
Key areas of focus in the draft roadmap include establishing Ireland’s baseline data on food waste, from which we will set out to achieve a 50% reduction by 2030.
This baseline data will also inform how we set interim targets.
In addition, the draft roadmap sets out how we will measure and report on food waste. It sets out actions on: Food waste segregation; food donation; research; and communications to help households to avoid food waste.
The draft roadmap also looks at what the public sector can do, to tackle food waste through improved procurement practices.
Submissions on the draft National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap can now be submitted by the public and interested stakeholders.
The closing time and date for submissions is 5:30p.m on Thursday, March 24, 2022.