Ljubljana - An average person in Slovenia threw away 68 kilograms of food last year, while the total amount of discarded food was 143,254 tonnes, which is only 0.2% less than the year before. Households produced over half of the total food waste, fresh data from the Statistics Office show.

Last year, 38% of the food thrown away was edible, while in 2020 the share was at 40%.

Like in the past years, households generated more than half of the total food waste, 53% or 75,300 tonnes.

Some 40,000 tonnes of discarded food (28%) came from restaurants and other institutions where food is served, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, care homes. This is a 6% decrease compared to the year before.

Retailers had to dispose of some 14,400 tonnes due to damage during transport, improper storage or expiration date, which is a 5% drop, while the food production industry had to discard some 13,500 tonnes (up 24%). Each of the two industries contributed around 10% to last year's total waste.

Most food waste was processed in biogas plants (43%), down 9% over 2020 due to renovation works in some of the plants, followed by anaerobic processing in composting plants (34%), up by 7%.

One fifth was biologically stabilised before disposal in plants for mixed waste disposal. The rest was handled with other methods, such as incineration, oil re-refining, and other bio-processing methods.