Good practice:

Food waste campaign: ¡Organiza, organizando… menos desperdicios alimentarios estamos generando!

The food waste campaign: ¡Organiza, organizando… menos desperdicios alimentarios estamos generando! (Organizing… less food waste we are generating! ) organises information sessions for citizens on responsible consumption, in municipalities of the Aragon region, Spain. These information sessions are held in different small-scale markets and supermarkets to reach as many people as possible. The project managers carried out activities concerning food waste reduction around meal planning, food storage systems, and new recipes made with food scraps. The project offered fun and interactive coaching by environmental educators dressed as super-heroes to attract citizens, educate and explain how to reduce food waste in an entertaining way.

Issues related to sustainable consumption as environmental education and daily consumption habits were undertaken within 13 sessions organized in 2020. The food waste campaign informed of good practices within the circular economy and taught citizens low threshold solutions to battle food waste. Such as avoiding buying unnecessary and excess food, selecting products sold in bulk, reducing packaging and plastic bags. In addition, the project carried out a “consumer habits survey” after every session with an associated prize. This survey gave insight and information about different aspects of consumption habits; as to which are the most wasted food products, etc.

Two persons work to organise the informative campaign sessions that are approx. four-hour long. Including an information stand, roulette and other different graphic materials to attract and inform citizens of food waste and sustainable consumption. The annual cost is approximate, 15.000 Euros.

The food waste campaign has reached so far approximately 150 participants each session, within the different activities. During the four-year campaign, 2800 food waste habits surveys were collected. The food waste campaign has visible media appearances in TV programmes, newspapers, etc.

Difficulties to find the right professionals that could get the attention of citizens. The impact that the food waste campaign had on participants was difficult to document because with every session the participants changed, the survey was made right after each session.

Key success factors for a transfer of the practice are the locations where food was sold, but it can also be replicated in other places, such as schools, workplaces or community centres. This practice can be repeated in any location with bypassers, or attended by a large number of people. It is necessary to have an open space where the organiser can place the information stand visible as well as to carry out the speech of each training. It is also advisable to have graphic resources (posters and papers) or possibility to show the website and information on the computer.