Zero Waste dinner at UNEP Headquarters
Type of practice Reduce
Name of practice Zero Waste dinner at UNEP Headquarters
Name of main actor UNEP
Type of actor(s) Public authority
Location Kenya
Stage of implementation Consumption
Year of implementation 2012
What was/is being done? At a special dinner held in Nairobi in February 2012, delegates and
ministers from all over the world were served a delicious fivecourse
meal prepared with products harvested in Kenya and destined
to the export market but rejected by UK supermarkets. The
dinner was held in connection with Universal Session of the UNEP
Governing Council and Global Ministerial Forum (GC-GMF) in
Nairobi to highlight the food loss emergency. Experts affirm that
similar “rejecting” practices, based on aesthetic criteria and lastminute
order reduction, happen worldwide on a regular basis
which places an enormous and unjustified burden on small farmers
who must bear the costs of the losses themselves. All the leftovers
of this dinner were then donated to a local development
organization, to support its feeding project in a local primary
school.
Outcomes and impacts This provided a great opportunity for authorities to ask policy-
makers and retailers to revise and relax their standards and
take common actions in order to make sure that perfectly edible
and nutritious “ugly” food does is not wasted unnecessarily, penalizing
farmers, people who are not granted adequate access to
food, and the environment.