At age 19, Regina Tchelly left her small hometown in north-east Brazil and arrived in Rio de Janeiro with a dream: to become a famous chef.
When she got there, Tchelly, who was raised to never waste food, was saddened to see how often street vendors threw away good food.
That set Tchelly on a new culinary path. She began taking home discarded food from her work as a maid and created innovative recipes, like banana peel gingerbread and broccoli stalk quiche. That experience would eventually lead her to found Favela Orgânica. The organization has taught thousands of low-income individuals, street vendors and chefs how to waste less food, counter hunger and tackle the often devastating environmental effects that come with food waste.
“There should be no such thing as throwing away,” says Tchelly, now 42. “We're throwing away our planet. We need to change our behaviour. We're in a climate crisis. Here, people learn how healthy food and sustainable habits can benefit both our health and the planet.”
Tchelly is part of a growing movement in Brazil to cut down on food waste, which is quickly spreading around the world.
Globally, households waste over 1 billion meals every day despite as many as 783 million people going hungry, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) newly released Food Waste Index Report 2024. Some 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the production and decomposition of food that is ultimately thrown away.
Brazil, the world’s sixth-most populous country, produces some 20 million tonnes of food waste a year. Around 27 million people in the country are considered food insecure, according to government estimates. But through data collection, policymaking and collaboration, the Brazilian government —from the federal to local levels—and community groups are actively working to reverse course.
“Reducing food waste is not only essential to address food insecurity but also to fight the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste,” says Ruth Zugman do Coutto, UNEP’s Climate Change Mitigation Branch Chief. “With an estimated 80 per cent of food to be consumed in cities by 2050, it is crucial to engage local governments to take action on food waste. We can make use of cities’ dense urban networks to redistribute, upcycle or recycle food and nutrients.”
Revamping the menu
In 2010, Brazil established a national policy on solid waste, which mandates that municipalities implement composting systems. However, this legislation does not specify measures for preventing food waste.
Through collaboration with UNEP, non-profit organizations, and city leaders, Brazil is developing a new national policy draft on food waste reduction and composting. This is expected to enter into force by the beginning of 2025. The policy will provide mayors and other relevant stakeholders across the country with guidelines to reduce food waste and implement composting projects.
Brazil is also developing its first national strategy on the circular economy, which will include a focus on revamping food systems to minimize waste in production, distribution and consumption.
“With the support of UNEP, we were able to understand that the federal government needed to do something more integrated and highlight this problem to everybody,” says Adalberto Maluf, Brazil’s National Secretary for Urban Environment and Environmental Quality. “We are wasting more than 22 per cent of our food. [Without action,] we are never going to reach the targets of zero hunger.”
Locally sourced
As the Brazilian government reimagines its approach to food waste, Maluf says it is collaborating with a range of partners, including the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), a public research agency affiliated with the country’s Ministry of Agriculture.
Gustavo Porpino, an expert with Embrapa and contributor to the UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024, says eliminating food waste can have far-reaching benefits.
“The food systems agenda has economic value, it has social value, it has environmental value,” Porpino says. “It can generate several positive impacts.”
With Brazil hosting this year’s Group of 20 Summit and next year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), Maluf says the country is keen “to bring the compost and food waste debate to the circular economy (discussion)” while also being “proactive on building the agenda to reduce poverty”.
Porpino adds that community leadership is critical to supplementing government efforts. When discussing grassroots campaigns to counter food waste, he singles out one organization for its standout efforts – Favela Orgânica.
Serving up change
Back in Rio de Janeiro, Regina Tchelly lets out a hearty laugh when talking about praise for the organization. “This is a place where we don't work on competition but on cooperation. Here, we work on showing that everyone is capable, that everyone helps each other.”
Through Tchelly’s leadership, Favela Orgânica provides workshops on what she calls “alternative gastronomy”: maximizing ingredient use, promoting homemade composting and enabling urban gardening in small spaces. These help community members rethink their relationship with food and reduce waste.
The organization is currently training 160 women in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro on urban gardening and the importance of a lifecycle approach, ensuring that any leftover produce is returned to the food chain.
Experts say this work is particularly important for people living in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas who deal with food insecurity and a lack of electricity, running water and sanitation.
As the Brazilian government establishes its ambitious, multi-pronged approach to overcoming food waste, work at the community level remains pivotal. Only when governments, businesses, non-profits and individuals work together can they embrace a lifecycle approach and move towards zero waste in the food sector and beyond, says Porpino.
“Integrated use of food has to be part of our daily lives, and working with schools is important,” says Tchelly, whose work has taken her across Brazil. “We give a person the seed, teach them to plant the seed, harvest the seed and give the seed back to the Earth.”
International Day of Zero Waste, observed on 30 March 2024 and jointly facilitated by UNEP and UN-Habitat, raises awareness of the importance of waste management and responsible consumption and production practices for sustainable development. The Day calls on everyone to embrace a lifecycle approach, which entails reducing resource use and emissions to the environment throughout all stages of products’ life cycles.
