Abstract
Food wastage in households remains a sustainability challenge that poses both environmental and social problems. Among the many factors contributing to this problem, the packaging, including its design and functions, can either leverage or reduce food waste. Yet packaging is often considered an environmental villain, which can lead to missed opportunities for reducing food waste. Against this background, this study explored and quantified the packaging–food waste relationship in households. To explore this relationship, a multi-step method was applied to grasp the role of packaging in consumers’ everyday practices and routines. The method incorporated a questionnaire, food waste diary and in-depth interview to measure food waste across different food categories and explore the underlying reasons for food wastage. According to an analysis of 37 households, packaging played a significant role especially in bread, dairy, meat and staple food wastage. For countering this problem, the most important factors related to packaging are its size and display of detailed information about product safety and storage. This study’s theoretical contribution lies in offering a service lens and an ‘outside-in’ approach for exploring the consumer’s value creation process and providing a context for better understanding why food wastage occurs in households. For policymakers and packaging designers, this study provides new insights into the relationship between consumer food practices and packaging, thus informing future food waste reduction initiatives.
Highlights
Recent review studies and policy documents highlight the significance and impact of household-generated food waste on both the environment and society (e.g. Block et al, 2016; European Commission, 2017; Hebrok and Boks, 2017; Schanes et al, 2018)
How can food waste attributed to packaging functions be assessed in households? The service lens introduced in the previous section clarifies that such an assessment must consider the relationship between the consumer’s value creation process and packaging as one of the many resources integrated during this process
A multi-step method combining a questionnaire, food waste diary and in-depth interview was applied to 37 Swedish households
Summary
Recent review studies and policy documents highlight the significance and impact of household-generated food waste on both the environment and society (e.g. Block et al, 2016; European Commission, 2017; Hebrok and Boks, 2017; Schanes et al, 2018). Recent review studies and policy documents highlight the significance and impact of household-generated food waste on both the environment and society Households continue to be a major contributor to food waste in the industrialised world (Stenmarck, 2016; FAO et al, 2014), which has necessitated an exploration of new approaches to tackle this challenge. Recent studies have used insights from design theory (Hebrok and Boks, 2017), consumer behaviour (Block et al, 2016), practice theory (Schanes et al, 2018) and innovation (Baron et al, 2018) to explore the reasons for this problem and develop new solution pathways for reducing consumer-generated food waste. The present paper contributes to these discussions by adopting a service lens to investigate the role of packaging and its potential for reducing food waste in different product categories in households
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