Cyprus households waste 48,000 tonnes of food a year

Households in Cyprus produce nearly 48,000 tonnes of food waste per year while businesses in the food sector generate about 110,000 tonnes of waste.

The report on the social-economic impact of wastage was carried out by FOODprint, which stated that almost 2.5kg of food waste are generated per household each week.

The organisation calculated that the cost of food waste per resident amounts to €1,000 per year.

According to the report, if 100,000 residents adopted practices to avoid food waste then 17,237 tonnes per year would be eliminated.

It added that emission from food waste being dumped in landfill sites amount to 119,786,064kg of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

If the quantities of waste are disposed of in biogas production units, the report said, there could be a reduction of about 131,555,00kg of greenhouse gas emissions a year – with the potential to generate 13,791,828KWh of energy annually.

The organisation stressed that Cyprus ranked third in the EU in terms of food waste, with one-third of food production being wasted globally.