As statistics published on Tuesday showed, private households produce around 75% of food waste in the country, more than a quarter of which the government classifies as “avoidable” waste, such as leftovers. “Unavoidable” food waste consists of vegetable peel, bones or other inedible parts. 

The value of food that could have been salvaged by households is estimated at €46.5m annually, or €75.50 per person living in Luxembourg. 

The gastronomy sector wastes around 8.9 kg of food per person per year, per the government statistics, of which 7.1 kg could have been avoided.

Unsold groceries at shops account for 5,150 tonnes of food waste per year, not including food donated to food banks or other organisations in a bid to reduce the amount discarded.

The analysis carried out by Luxembourg’s environment administration was not all doom and gloom though. It showed that the amount of avoidable food waste had gone back by around a third since 2016, which the administration said was due to awareness raising campaigns but also more households composting organic waste.

Luxembourg on Wednesday is set to present details of a no-waste strategy, which was developed across six workshops in 2019 to minimise the amount of waste produced in the country.