Avoidable Household Food Waste: Diagnosing the Links between Causes and Composition

Peter J Shaw

doi:10.3390/recycling6040080

Abstract

Problems associated with the wastage of food intended for human consumption are well known and the discarding of edible but unconsumed food—avoidable food waste—is clearly undesirable. Interventions to reduce avoidable food waste need to be suitably informed: understanding the causes and consequences of avoidable food waste is instructive in this regard. One hitherto unexplored approach to understand better the causes of food waste is to elucidate associations between the composition of avoidable food waste and the reasons why it is generated. If such associations can be established, data relating to the composition of avoidable food waste can contribute evidence to underpin interventions intended to prevent or reduce avoidable food waste. The aim of this study was therefore to explore links between the causes of avoidable food waste and its composition, and thereby contribute to the development of management measures. Information relating the commonly reported causes of avoidable food waste and its composition (part-consumed, whole-unused and leftovers) was gathered via a series of participatory workshops involving university students. Outcomes of the workshops indicated that individual causes of avoidable food waste rarely lead exclusively to a single type of avoidable food waste, but some relationships were evident. Five of the 13 causal factors explored were considered to lead to all three types of avoidable food waste; a further five were considered to lead mainly to part-consumed and whole-unused food waste. Potential interventions to effect positive change are explored; the value of classifying avoidable food waste to guide interventions was evident, although approaches would need to be aligned with the observed composition of avoidable food waste and the method(s) of intervention considered. Applications of the approach and outcomes of this study are also considered in a policy context.

Highlights

It is well known that the production and provision of food for human consumption demand high levels of resources across the whole supply chain [1] including land, water and nutrients [2]
Faced with a likely mix of leftovers, part consumed and whole unused avoidable food waste, the outcomes of the present study indicate that a subset of causal factors should be of concern (Table 4)
It is clear that householders’ behaviour with regard to avoidable food waste is influenced by an array of factors; it is unlikely that a “one-size-fits-all” solution to the problem of wasted edible food exists or will be identified

Summary

Introduction

It is well known that the production and provision of food for human consumption demand high levels of resources across the whole supply chain [1] including land, water and nutrients [2]. The failure to consume food produced for human consumption represents a failure to make full use of the resources and impacts associated with its provision; estimates suggest that between one-third [3] and one-half [4] of food produced globally does not fulfil its intended use. In the UK, for example, food waste at the consumption stage accounts for an estimated 46% of all food waste across the whole supply chain [7]; households produced 61% of the 931 million tonnes generated on a global scale in 2019 [8]. Of the food wasted at household level, almost half can be associated with fresh fruits and vegetables, of which around 40% comprises food that could have been consumed [9]

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Discussion

Conclusion