Thanks to COVAR14, food waste play a leading role EWWR 2011

by Andrea Stecich

What about bread and pasta left-overs? These days it’s a quite weird question.

Many of us, for various motivations, prefer getting rid of them in the rubbish or, more sensitively, recycling them through the compost heap collection system. Anyway, thrown waste are still edible and rich of nutritious: in the EU, 89 millions of tons of food per year are thrown away, and 42% of them come from our kitchens, rather than from supermarkets. Starting from these facts, on the occasion of the European Week for Waste Reduction which will take place from November 19 to 27, COVAR14 (South Turin Province Consortium for Waste Collection) decided to spread an innovative and strong message in order to stimulate public’s reflection, even though the practices are actually not so revolutionary, because our grandparents already used to reuse food waste.

Following the tradition then, COVAR14, in collaboration with Istituto Alberghiero Bobbio di Carignano, Eataly, Slowfood, Banco Alimentare and the restaurateurs, produced a “left-overs recipe book”. This was an opportunity for restaurateurs to show their cooking skills. Istituto Bobbio has been involved in organizing the scheduled events (three cooking classes and a left-overs dinner open to citizenship) thank to its teachers professionalism; Eataly Slowfood and Banco Alimentare will be in charge of food supply and transportation, and they will form the technical panel during the final dinner. The dishes, cooked by Istituto Bobbio’s personnel, will be voted according to different categories (maximum reuse dish, zero consumption dish, the best dish etc.), For giving visibility to the initiative, posters and press advertisements (Corriere di Moncalieri, il Carmagnolese, Luna Nuova, il Mercoledì) have been produced, and municipalities have also been involved. The recipe book will be the starting basis for the EWWR events, and it will be handed out by the municipalities or during the events. Otherwise you can download the pdf version from the COVAR14 website.

This way we can bring home a fragment of the ancient “reusing art”, for spreading across friends and relatives, saving money and preserving the environment.

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EWWR 2011: Casematte and Equiliberi. Turin and Pinerolo to reduce waste.

by Francesca Morra

The third edition of the European Week for Waste Reduction has finally begun, involving 960 actions throughout Italy. Among these, about 16% will be implemented by associations, which are assuming a major role spreading the spirit of SERR 2011 among their members, and not only them. Let’s start from Piedmont, taking a look to the non-profit organization Equiliberi and to the association Casematte.

Equiliberi Onlus is a Pinerolo-based association committed in social solidarity activities in many different sectors, always with special care to environmental protection, principle enshrined by the Association Charter. Through the initiative “L'impronta (ecologica) è servita” (The (ecological) footprint is served) Equiliberi carries out its awareness campaign on several occasions: submitting EWWR questionnaires to City’s administrators, to volunteers of AVASS and for all students; giving sustainable development classes; cooking dinners with leftovers, organizing travelling aperitifs and afternoon snacks for spreading waste reduction.

In particular it should be noted the presentation of the Sustainable Development Project on November 22, from 18:30 – to around 20:00 at Eataly Pinerolo - route Poirino 104, Pinerolo (Turin).

It’ll be focused on food recovery and on education to sustainable development in the catering industry as well as on best practices for waste reduction. President Maria B. Romano says that, with these initiatives, the association proposes «to contribute to moulding a culture aimed at preventing the production of excess waste and at creating opportunities for businesses and the urban system in general».

The Casematte association was formed in Turin in 2009 by a group of professionals working in promoting social and community development. For the EWWR 2011 they created the initiative “Guardacampo in città” (Scarecrows in the city): it's an exhibition, visible from November 22 to 27 (at the Collective Garden, Turin) of scarecrows made ​​from recycled materials by the students of ASL TO 2 and of the Educational Service of Deaf Institute of Turin. These scarecrows, together with having a decorative function, host in their structure plants and vegetables, enabling a “vertical” small and portable balcony growing treated with self-made compost.

According to Chiara Casotti, one of the founders of the association and in charge of the EWWR 2011 activity «collective participation in cultivating a plot of land together, encourages openness to social and cultural diversity, facilitating, in particular, the integration process of foreign citizens and persons with disabilities, in a wider perspective which goes beyond the environment».

Of particular interest, this action proves itself to be even more innovative giving the chance to "adopt" the scarecrows: close to each of them, in fact, will be left a sheet of paper on which anyone can write his name for requesting the adoption.

Do not miss the opportunity to participate in these worthy of note actions.

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