Food waste ‘Warriors’, ‘Strugglers’ and ‘Slackers’: Segmenting households based on food waste generation and sorting behaviours

Abstract

Food waste is a largely avoidable global issue with adverse environmental and economic impacts. Households are the main generators of food waste, with two main food waste behaviours contributing to the issue: generation and sorting. Online survey data from 939 households was used to segment households based on two measures of food waste generation (total food waste volume and the proportion of total food waste that is avoidable) and one measure of sorting behaviour (proportion of food waste sorted sustainably). Three segments were identified: ‘Warriors’ (39.6%), ‘Strugglers’ (19.6%), and ‘Slackers’ (40.8%). Warriors have low total and avoidable food waste and sort it sustainably (i.e. sorting into a kerbside organics bin, composting, and feeding to pets). Slackers have low food waste but sort little of it sustainably. Strugglers have high food waste and a medium level of sustainable sorting. These segments were profiled based on the Motivation – Opportunity – Ability framework with motivation based on the three goal-framing motivations (i.e. gain, hedonic, and normative goals) for reducing and sorting food waste between segments. These findings can help inform the design of interventions aimed at reducing and sorting food waste in specific segments of municipal populations.