New municipality and innovative experiences to start a community circular economy. In Valdilana the Mani Tese Pratrivero association, thanks to the extraordinary contributions of the Municipality, is ready to propose a project with the aim of avoiding food waste. The first two ideas are to start a solidarity emporium and a last minute market. The project is coordinated by Mani Tese who has already opened «Ri-circolo» in Valdilana, the shop where used objects still in good condition ready for reuse are sold. It is about clothes, but also about household items.
The new initiative starts with a series of online and face-to-face meetings on issues related to environmental sustainability that compare national and local experiences. First appointment entitled “Food: gift against waste” scheduled for tomorrow at 20.30, we will talk about experiences on the subject and solidarity projects. Andrea Segrè, a professor at the University of Bologna, will also speak on this occasion, presenting the experience of the last minute market and other projects related to the reduction of food waste. Massimo Platini, contact person of the Valsessera solidarity emporium will also be present. Inaugurated in July 2019, the Emporio is now a deeply rooted reality in the mountainous territory of the Eastern Biella area: for each opening day it records up to forty passages.
“Compared to the beginnings – explains Platini – the number of users who come to us has more than doubled, we have come to support about 160 families, most of which from Valsessera but also some from Valdilana and Valsesia”.
With the new form of help to families in difficulty who no longer receive the shopping bag, you can make the desired purchases through a card with which to show up at the store. This is a widely tested system that involves about twenty volunteers who, engaged in rotation, allow the Emporium to function at its best. Another idea that is being developed in Valdilana is that of the last minute market, a similar social initiative born from a study conducted by the agricultural faculty of the University of Bologna under the supervision of Segrè. The project has as its objective the quantification of edible waste linked to the large-scale distribution of the food sector in order to promote its “reuse” within the solidarity circuits. When the shopkeeper has fresh food close to expiry or surplus food, he sends discounted offers to avoid waste, in this case he recovers the capital invested and sees new people enter the shop. For its part, the customer receives the offers via a notification on an App, saving on spending and helping to eliminate waste.