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Last Minute Market(LMM): “Transforming waste to resource” is the philosophy of the project conceived by the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Bologna and with the active participation of Nordiconad Conad with many stores and hypermarkets with 2-E.Leclerc Conad.

The operation consists in the recovery of products removed from sale (because of the expiration or with damaged packaging), but still perfectly good and healthy, to be allocated to groups that give aid to people in social and economic hardship. Originating in Bologna, it is active in more than 40 Italian towns, with 2 new projects under development in Argentina and Brazil. LMM offers services to enterprises and institutions in order to prevent and reduce waste production at its origin. It also develops innovative services for the recovery and reuse of unsold goods.

In 2009, more than 150 tons of products, worth about €550,000 were donated. In 2008 from supermarkets alone, nearly 170 tonnes of good edible food has been recuperated through LMM, with a value of €646,000. If LMM Food were to be adopted nationwide in Italy by supermarkets, small shops and cash and carry shops, €928,157,600 would be the monetary value of recuperated products. Furthermore, these products could provide 3 meals a day to 636,000 people – in total 580,402,025 meals a year. By not sending these products to the landfill – 291,393 tonnes of CO2 emissions could be spared. This has been calculated through a methodology developed by the Department of Agricultural Economics and Engineering of the Faculty of Agriculture (Bologna).

In the future, LMM would like to promote a comprehensive strategy, aiming at further developing its 6 different and interrelated areas of activities (food, harvest, seeds, catering, book, pharmacy) and covering the whole of Italy. LMM is interested in establishing collaborations with research institutions and organizations dealing with food waste and eventually in starting LMM projects in other European countries.