Milan’s food waste initiative wins £1 million Earthshot prize to scale to more cities

The City of Milan and the Republic of Costa Rica are among the first ever Earthshot Prize winners, an initiative founded by Britain’s Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

Each winner will receive £1 million (US$1.37 million) prize money and a global network of support to scale their pioneering environmental solutions.

The City of Milan, Italy, won the award in the Build a Waste-free World category for its food waste hubs.

As the first major city to enforce a city-wide food waste policy, Milan’s Food Waste Hub programme recovers food from local supermarkets and restaurants and distributes it to citizens in need.

The programme was launched in 2019 with the aim of halving waste by 2030. Today, the city has three Food Waste Hubs, each recovering about 130 tonnes of food per year or 350 kg per day, estimated as the equivalent to around 260,000 meals.

Through the Earthshot Prize, the goal is to scale Milan’s model to other cities.

Other winners

Costa Rica won the Protect and Restore Nature award for its policy of paying citizens to protect the rainforests and restore local ecosystems. Since the programme launched, Costa Rica’s forests have doubled in size.

Takachar, India, won the Clean our Air category for its portable machine to turn agricultural waste into fertiliser so that farmers do not burn it and cause air pollution.

The Revive our Oceans award went to Coral Vita in the Bahamas. Its approach to coral farming of growing coral on land then replanting it in the ocean can grow coral up to 50 times faster than traditional methods and improves coral resilience to the impact of climate change. Through the prize, Coral Vita aims to establish a global network of coral farms to grow a billion corals each year.

The AEM Electrolyser from Enapter was awarded the Fix Our Climate prize. It turns renewable electricity into emission-free hydrogen gas.

Prince William said: “Our five inspirational winners show that everyone has a role to play in the global effort to repair our planet. We need businesses, leaders, innovators, and communities to take action. And, ultimately, we need all of us to demand that the solutions get the support they need. Because the success of our winners is our collective, global Earthshot.”