A portal to fight food waste and redistribute precious resources:how Regusto works

The Regusto platform allows companies to donate surpluses, or sell them at symbolic prices, to non-profit organizations throughout Italy.

• From field to plate, a third of the food produced every year is wasted, with a huge impact on the environment.
• This is why among the objectives of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development there is also the reduction of food losses along the entire supply chain.
• Regusto is the innovative startup that connects demand and supply of surplus or expiring food in real time, according to the logic of proximity and the circular economy.
• Through the platform, companies make unsold products available to associations who redistribute them to the people most in need.

According to the estimates of Fao (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) approximately every year a third of all food produced in the world is wasted. A problem of an ethical, social and economic nature, but also environmental.In fact, together with food, the resources that were used to produce it are also wasted:energy, water resources, workforce, territory, fuels.The impact on the environment is estimated at 4.8 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted needlessly into the atmosphere and water consumption equal to 180 billion cubic meters.Only in Italy, between losses in the field and inefficiencies in the industrial and distribution chain, during 2022 the agri-food supply chain  it wasted over 4 million tons of food (Source: Waste watcher international observatory) for a value of 9 billion euros.This is why among the objectives of theAgenda 2030 for sustainable development there is also the reduction of food losses along the entire agri-food chain.

An important goal that requires an effort from everyone, at every level.It was created to help production and distribution companies be more virtuous Regustus, the startup that connects supply and demand for surplus or expiring food through proximity marketing, allowing companies to donate or sell goods at risk of waste to affiliated non-profit organizations throughout Italy.Thus, in addition to the environmental and economic advantages, there are also social ones.

How Regusto works, the app to put food and non-food surpluses back into circulation

Born in 2020, Regusto is a startup brand Let's recover srl, founded in 2016 by Marco Raspati And Paolo Rellini with the aim of creating solutions to reduce waste and encourage food recovery.It is a portal and an app which, acting according to the logic ofcircular economy, allows businesses to donate or sell surpluses and unsold products at symbolic prices (food and non-food) a non-profit organizations who will then take care of distributing them to the most needy people.It therefore introduces a model of food sharing for charity, literally “sharing food for charity”.

The operation is very simple:the companies upload the items available for sale or donation in the appropriate sections and the associations, who have a digital wallet at their disposal, book those they are interested in.The prices of the goods are expressed in credits (each credit is equivalent to one euro) and the booking takes place using a virtual currency.At the time of booking, the two parties involved in the transaction receive an email with all the details and manage the payment directly.

Tracked and transparent transactions, measurable positive impacts

The Regusto platform leverages technology blockchain which allows data relating to transactions to be saved in an open and public register.Every single donation or sale therefore comes traced, safely and with maximum transparency.The documents come digitized so that businesses can access them more easily tax relief provided for by the law on the donation of products and surpluses for the reduction of waste.

Furthermore, through proprietary algorithms, the innovative startup calculates the social and environmental impact indices generated by the recovery of each stock of goods at risk of waste, such as the cubic meters of water saved and the kilos of carbon dioxide not emitted.These indices can be consulted in the section statistics and can be used in sustainability reports or for communication activities related to corporate social responsibility.

The portal, by processing the data, also generates data token which are sold to companies or individuals.Each impact token corresponds to two equivalent meals, one kilo of carbon dioxide avoided, 2 cubic meters of water saved and 3 square meters of soil saved.All credits sold are collected in one register accessible and open to the public.

A five times sustainable tool

Regusto is therefore a five times sustainable tool.It is for them companies, because it helps simplify and track donation and sales operations, manage product stocks, avoid the food waste and eliminate disposal costs.For the non-profit organizations, because it allows you to quickly and easily find and manage donations and purchases of the necessary products, track and report donations and communicate the results achieved.For i citizens and the companies which, thus, can compensate or minimize their impact.Finally, Regusto wants to be sustainable for the vulnerable categories, beneficiaries of food distribution;and for the environment, because it reduces the consumption of natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions.

For this reason, the startup was awarded by Confindustria as the best performer of the circular economy in 2022 and was included by the Barilla Foundation among the four virtuous cases in Europe to prevent waste.Being in line with the 2030 Agenda, it is part of LifeGate Way, the Italian ecosystem that supports and connects naturally sustainable startups.

Regusto's numbers and results

Any company based in Italy you can sign up and use Regusto for free:from agricultural businesses to distributors, from hotels to large-scale retail trade, from industries to furniture and DIY chains and, in general, anyone who has to manage stocks at risk of waste.In addition to food goods, they are also available on the platform non-food items, such as personal hygiene products, home care items, furnishing accessories, objects and utensils.Only them third sector associations who carry out socially relevant and public utility activities, registered (also free of charge) on the portal, can reserve the items available for donation and for sale.And they can use them only and exclusively for their own institutional purposes.

Today they are part of the Regusto ecosystem beyond 500 food and non-food companies and 750 non-profit organisations and over 200 tons of goods are transacted every month, with over 2.5 million tokens created every year.Since January 2023, the startup has generated a positive impact equal to 861,043 equivalent meals, over 430 kilos of carbon dioxide emissions avoided, more than 861 thousand cubic meters of water saved, 1,291,565 square meters of land saved.

In the last two years, 270 organizations have donated through the platform 4,289 tons of items, for a value of approximately 20 million euros, converted into basic necessities redistributed to the most vulnerable citizens.The companies saved around 1.5 million euros in disposal and warehouse costs and obtained more than 2 million euros in tax relief.