Characterization, environmental impact and reduction strategies for the delivery food waste generated by urban and township residents in Jiuquan, China

Abstract

Patterns and effects of delivery food waste (DFW) in small cities remain unknown. Therefore, a case study was, for the first time conducted targeting residents of a typical small city (Jiuquan, China) using direct weighing (511 samples or 843 orders) and a questionnaire survey (471 samples). The results showed that the vast majority of DFW was avoidable (approximately 79 % of the total), meaning a high level of wasting food derived from residents for such a small city, and the associated emission of avoidable DFW was primarily attributed to its upstream stage (approximately 81 % of the total), indicating that it is more significant environmental benefit in the prevention and reducing waste than its final management. The amount of DFW generated by urban residents was significantly higher than that of township residents (213 ± 132 vs 145 g/cap/order, P < 0.01), and age was found to be the most important factor determining DFW, especially in groups II & III (20–30 and 30–40 years old). Thus, mitigation strategies targeting young urban residents have the greatest overall effect. Plastic packaging waste also represents a large component of total DFW (19 %), and replacing plastic tableware with sharing tableware can be an effective waste reduction strategy.