Sep 9, 20223 min read

Food Waste Around the World, Episode 51: Spain

Food Waste Around the World is a Food Circle project to provide information and raise awareness about food waste. The project is designed as a series of interviews with students from different countries to understand how this issue is tackled and perceived around the world. This is made possible thanks to Sapient, the mother company of Food Circle, which every year offers internships to students from all around the globe, creating a uniquely multicultural environment.

Today we're speaking with Zenith Moreno from Spain

But first, let’s add some context

While Spain is especially vulnerable to climate change, the plans are set forth to prioritise those Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim to minimise environmental impact, as part of the Agenda 2030 program [1]. This includes paying attention to air quality, waste management, sustainable energy and efficient water management. Spain is set to make reforms and investments for more resilient and sustainable future, and 40% of this plan focuses on supporting climate objectives. The plan also includes law on climate change and energy transition [2].

As of right now Spain ranks 16th globally on sustainable development. Spain’s performance has seen an increase over the past years, with steadily improving sustainability in urban areas, protection of marine areas and some CO2 emission objectives [3]. Spain is yet to achieve an SDG, with most of the goals still containing some challenges.

Hello, Zenith! Thank you for participating in the interview. Before we start, could you please briefly introduce yourself?

Hey, I am Zenith and I am the current Project Coordinator of SapientNRG. I was born in Panama but I have spent most of my life in Spain, but at the moment I am studying in Denmark. I am carrying out my internship period here at SapientSEE.

Can you help give some background about the attitude to food waste and sustainability in Spain?

Personally speaking, I believe that there is room for change in those aspects. Overall, I do not consider that we are that conscious about food waste as we should. Regarding sustainability, we know the rules and what are the issues that the planet is facing, but not all of us are willing to strive for these changes. It is a matter of priorities, I guess.

What can we learn from Spanish people? Could you please tell us about their values, habits, or recipes that we could adapt and learn from to reduce food waste?

You can learn about how to use your food leftovers! It depends on which recipe you are preparing, but for sure you can cook something else from the leftovers.

I grew up in Madrid and we love our Cocido (it’s a stew made of several meats, vegetables and chickpeas) and usually with the leftovers you can make Chicken Croquettes, and Chickpeas with tomato sauce. Sounds tasty, right? Just google it, haha!

Do you know of any significant organizations that are tackling food waste?

Last time that I was in Spain I was using the Too Good To Go app, where you can easily find which places (restaurants, bars, supermarkets, cafeterias, etc) around you are selling the food or the groceries that they would need to throw away. Most of the motives of throwing that away are just because they could not sell it that day or even the bag it is packed in is broken, or has an expiration date.

Based on what we talked about reducing food waste, what’s the most frustrating thing to you about food waste?

Besides the fact that we overproduce many goods, which is also consuming a lot of energy, I really regret the idea that there are many people who are not able to get anything to eat, and to see how tons of thousands are thrown away, it is truly shocking.

If we want to minimise the issue of food waste worldwide, what do you recommend people do differently?

I would recommend to think twice when we are buying our groceries and every time we leave our homes to eat outside, overall, every time when we are consuming. Just to think if we really need it, because each of our decisions make an impact on our future.