On this 2026 Day of Zero Waste, António Guterres – UN Secretary General, spotlights the call in a collective attention and real actions purposely on the mounting food waste crisis.
Scientific study shows the world food waste currently at critical figures. Every day, the throw away is enough to prepare 1 billion meals while letting 9 percent of humanity go hungry and putting the climate, ecosystems and health at risk in parallel consequences with dangerously threatening human ability to feed themselves in the future.
At COP 30 | Brazil – 2025 | the initiatives of: ‘Food Waste Breakthrough’ and ‘No Organic Waste’ were launched. The analysis shows its capacity to halve food waste by 2030 and to cut its methane emissions by up to 7 percent, meanwhile, to build circular, resilient food systems. Therefore, real actions turn important on the practical side.
Consumers to:
- Plan, buy, store and prepare food mindfully to cut waste and save resources.
- Support food recovery, redistribution and composting initiatives.
- Help make food waste socially unacceptable through everyday action.
Businesses to:
- Set measurable food waste reduction targets and integrate them into existing sustainability commitments.
- Innovate to transition to circular food systems and improve efficiency across supply chains.
- Join the Food Waste Breakthrough to scale solutions and share progress.
Governments to:
- Advance food waste prevention through climate and biodiversity plans and national policies on circularity, waste, food systems, agriculture and urban development and promote measurement and monitoring.
- Strengthen public–private partnerships.
- Signal leadership and act by joining the Food Waste Breakthrough.
Together, let’s build the Zero Waste food systems we need to nourish both people and planet
Related Link:
Zero Waste Starts on Your Plate
