At the moment, 100,000 aluminium containers in 26 of the city’s restaurants will allow diners to take home any part of their meal they may not have totally consumed. These are the figures that relate to the “Tenga il Resto” [Keep what’s left] campaign that was strongly wanted by the municipality of Monza in to create an awareness among residents about food waste and the recovery of meals.
The campaign was launched following the establishment of the “Carta per una Rete di Enti Territoriali a Spreco Zero” [Charter for a Network of Zero Waste Local Authorities] which the Municipality of Monza subscribed to last year and which foresees, for those local authorities adhering to the charter, the putting into effect of initiatives aimed at limiting the waste of resources and energy
The choice of aluminium for representing the perfect packaging for preserving excess food was the result of a partnership between the city of Monza and the CIAL Consortium. The 100,000 containers, customised in keeping with the initiative’s message, were in fact supplied by CIAL and distributed to the city’s restaurants that had signed up to the initiative – 26 in total.
This number is set to rise over the course of the coming year and will undoubtedly provide an example that can be replicated by other cities, above all in view of the forthcoming Expo Milan (1 May to 31 October 2015), that will be dedicated precisely to food.
And it is precisely Expo Milan and the patronage of this initiative by its promoting body, that were the driving force behind this project; Monza is in fact once of the cities that will be most closely involved with Expo 2015.
During the conference staged to introduce the initiative, that took place on 4 October as part of Monza EcoFest, the Mayor of Monza, Roberto Scanagatti, stated how proud he was about the fact that it was actually Monza, so near to and so much a part of the City of Milan, that would be the first concrete example in the fight against food waste in restaurants and families; this, given the fact that an average of 146 kg of food per person are thrown away every year in Italy alone, resulting in, among other things, pollution equivalent to 4 million tonnes of CO2.
During the same event, held to introduce the “Tenga il Resto” campaign, Gino Schiona, General Manager of CIAL, also reiterated the value of aluminium in this shared fight against waste. He also announced the possibility of supporting the Municipality and the Association of Traders and Restaurateurs throughout the project, where the residents of Monza, as is to be expected, were to show their attentiveness and demonstrate their willingness to become involved.
Mr Schiona also pointed out that the City of Monza has, for over ten years, been one of Italy’s flagship authorities when it comes to the recyclable waste collection of aluminium packaging, achieving increasingly higher percentages, year after year, of collections and recycling.
NB
The “Carta per una Rete di Enti Territoriali a Spreco Zero” [Charter for a Network of Zero Waste Local Authorities] is an initiative promoted by Last Minute Market and “Villaggio Anti – Spreco” [Anti-waste Village], under the patronage of the University of Bologna, to encourage good practices. This was in light of the resolution of the European Parliament of 12 December 2011, which is dedicated to combating food waste and to the responsibilities of local administrators with regard to the possible areas they can work on at a local level in order to prevent improper conduct and incentivise those who are more virtuous.