Project Wasteless

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Project Wasteless is the national level food waste prevention programme of Hungary, part of the European and global food loss and food waste prevention initiative, a member organisation of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste [1] . Project Wasteless was launched by the National Food Chain Safety Office in 2016 with the co-funding [2] of the EU LIFE Framework [3] . In 2023 Project Wasteless was identified as a European good practice by the European Commission [4] , based on the findings of the European Consumer Food Waste Forum [5] , and also received the EU LIFE Award [6] , as one of the top 3 environmental protection projects in Europe.

Contents

History

The idea of Project Wasteless was founded by Gyula Kasza and Barbara Szabó-Bódi in 2015. In 2016 their project proposal received a 4-year co-funding by the European LIFE Framework, which helped the development of the programme within the National Food Chain Safety Office. 'Wasteless' is a dierect translation of the Hungarian phrase 'Maradék nélkül', the programme's original title.

The programme received inspiration from the UK based Love Food, Hate Waste campaign, organised by WRAP, and the Dutch United Against Food Waste [7] initiative, as well as the work [8] of Wageningen University & Research.

In 2018, the team of Project Wasteless was invited by the European Commission to host the European LIFE Food Waste Platform Meeting ‘Effective Solutions for Prevention and Treatment’ [9] with 120 international participants that took place in Budapest on 8-9th of October. The participants were welcomed by Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and by Vytenis Andriukaitis, Commissioner for Health & Food Safety.

In 2019, the coordinator of Project Wasteless, Gyula Kasza was invited to represent Hungary in the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste. The Joint Research Centre, in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, has set up a multi-disciplinary forum to assess consumer food waste prevention initiatives [10] , called European Consumer Food Waste Forum, in which Gyula Kasza was invited as a core expert, and one year later he was invited to be one of the three members of the Knowledge Committee for the European Citizens' Panel on Food Waste [11] , organised by the European Commission with the intention of gathering citizens' insights on how to step up action to reduce food waste in the EU.

From 2020, Project Wasteless received co-funding from the Ministry of Agriculture and European projects including Horizon Europe, Single Market Programme (HaDEA) and Interreg Europe.

In 2023 the Hungarian Government issued a regulation on biowaste [12] , in which it identified Project Wasteless as the national food waste prevention programme of Hungary.

In 2023, Wasteless Foundation, a non-profit organisation was founded to provide operational support for Project Wasteless. In 2024, Wasteless Foundation become a member of the European Food Information Council.

Main activities

Main achievements

Related Research Articles

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References

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  2. "LIFE 3.0 - LIFE Project Public Page". webgate.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  3. "LIFE - European Commission". cinea.ec.europa.eu. 2024-02-20. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  4. Candeal, T., Brüggemann, N., Bruns, H., Casonato, C., Diercxsens, C., Garcia Herrero, L., Gil, J.M., Haglund, Y., Kaptan, G., Kasza, G., Mikkelsen, B.E., Obersteiner, G., Pires, I.M., Swannell, R., Vainioranta, J., Van Herpen, E., Vittuari, M., Watanabe, K. and Sala, S., Tools, best practices and recommendations to reduce consumer food waste - A compendium, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/404597, JRC133004.
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  8. Contact, Do you have a question about the WUR Impact Award 2022? Ask: ir GETvan Vilsteren (2022-06-13). "Food Waste Free United, winner of the WUR Impact Award 2022". WUR. Retrieved 2024-02-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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  12. "559/2023. (XII. 14.) Korm. rendelet - Nemzeti Jogszabálytár". njt.hu. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  13. Szabó-Bódi, Barbara; Kasza, Gyula; Szakos, Dávid (2018-03-05). "Assessment of household food waste in Hungary". British Food Journal. 120 (3): 625–638. doi:10.1108/bfj-04-2017-0255. ISSN   0007-070X.
  14. Kasza, G., Dorkó, A., Kunszabó, A., & Szakos, D. (2020). Quantification of household food waste in Hungary: A replication study using the FUSIONS methodology. Sustainability, 12(8), 3069.
  15. Szakos, Dávid; Szabó-Bódi, Barbara; Kasza, Gyula (2020-06-25). "Consumer awareness campaign to reduce household food waste based on structural equation behavior modeling in Hungary". Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 28 (19): 24580–24589. doi:10.1007/s11356-020-09047-x. ISSN   0944-1344. PMC   8144144 . PMID   32588298.
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  17. Project, Cyclamen (2021-02-21). "Presentation about the achievements of Project Wasteless" (PDF).
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