Hot on the heals of France, Italy will become the second European country to donate its food waste to charity.
The bill will ban supermarkets from throwing away or spoiling unsold waste, and received widespread support.
It is expected to pass through the lower house of parliament on Monday and from there will be a final vote in the Senate of the Republic.
However Italy’s approach to waste differs from France’s, as instead of fining supermarkets for wasting food it will give business incentives to donate food, for example a reduction in rubbish taxes.
Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina told La Repubblica: “We are making it more convenient for companies to donate than to waste.
“We currently recover 550 million tonnes of excess food each year but we want to arrive at one billion in 2016.”
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What a fantastic move, we should have the same in here in England.
About time for this to become law in the UK. Thousands starve daily and the big supermarkets throw away their surplus food. Obviously no one is saying that they should give away rotten food but the ones that are still edible should be given to food charities.
Tesco bosses, you better be reading this. I will never forget what I found out last year in one of the big Tesco superstore about throwing away surplus foods on a daily basis rather than give it away to the homeless or even to their poor employees. Shame on you Tesco.
I couldn’t agree more.
Tesco is a very bad supermarket and directors are fraudsters.
We would rather throw food away than give it away to the needy in UK. Kudos to Italians for this move.
All the supermarkets throw away foods anyway, take it easy on Tesco.