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3.3.3 Last Minute Market

Last Minute Market (LMM)37 is a spin off from the University of Bologna, founded in 1998 as a research initiative. Today it is an entrepreneurial society working at Italian national level developing local projects aimed at the recovery of unsold goods (marketable or not) in favor of non-profit organizations. LMM favors the creation of a solidarity network in the area and the contact between demand (non-profit institutions) and offer (businesses).

The objective is ZERO WASTE: all services offered by LMM are studied and designed to prevent and reduce waste. LMM was created to assist companies in recovering surplus food, turning waste into a resource. Now LMM's field of activities have expanded to different types of goods (eg. medicines and non-food), and thanks to the package of services ever more innovative. LMM are capable of handling 360° waste prevention. The services offered are: recovery of surplus (food, meals, medicines, books, non food goods, etc.), monitoring and data analysis, estimating the environmental and social impacts, training, communication and marketing projects, content production.

Some examples of LMM projects and their impacts:

  1. NO-FOOD GOODS RECOVERY: the project “Change the final”, promoted by Hera, allows citizens to give a second life to large goods you no longer use (eg. furniture, appliances, etc.). In 2015 we recovered more than 700 tons of bulky goods in 5 provinces of Emilia-Romagna.
  2. PHARMACY RECOVERY: thanks to the project “Pharmaceutical friend” we recover still valid pharmaceutics purchased and not used by citizens and allocate them to organizations that assist disadvantaged people. In the past 3 years pharmaceutics were covered for a total economic value of about 1 million Euros.
  3. RECOVERY FROM LARGE RETAIL SECTOR: with Despar Nordest (Aspiag spa) we have enabled the recovery of surpluses throughout the whole sales network. After 2 years of work, the 200 supermarkets directly managed unsold products to avoid trash, by donating them to non-profit organizations in the area instead. In 2014 they donated goods for an economic value of € 2.5 million Euros.
  4. RECOVERY OF COOKED MEALS NOT SERVED BY CANTEENS: the recovery of meals have been active since 2004 and currently involve multiple structures: canteens, such as those of the Hera group or Maserati; hospital cooking centres, such as Sant'Orsola (about 6,500 meals donated per year) and Maggiore in Bologna; school canteens and catering centres.