Abstract
The issue of food waste prevention plays a role in global and national policies. Such prevention can reap economic and, in particular, environmental benefits. As our study shows, these environmental benefits are often lost due to indirect rebound effects. Income differences play a crucial role here.Addressing food waste prevention is one target of theSustainable Development Goals (SDGs)and a major task for theUN Environmental Programmeand the European Commission. It is promising in terms of its environmental saving potential. However, it also leads to consumers being able to save money, which they then are likely to spend, thus again causing a negative environmental impact. This dimension of the so-called indirect rebound effect, which prevents the desired ecological benefits from being achieved, is investigated in this paper. By using a single-region environmentally extended input-output model from a production perspective, the indirect rebound effects from food waste prevention in Germany are analysed. Any political action needs to consider not only a differentiation in income class, but also alternative concepts such as the principles of sufficiency in order to achieve all ecological benefits and specifically the third target ofSDG 12.
Highlights
Addressing food waste prevention is one target of the Sustainable and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO 2014), Development Goals (SDGs) and a major task for the UN Environmental around one third of food produced each year gets lost or wasted
The focus is upon the indirect rebound effect, as avoiding food waste in a private household is assumed to be a conscious change in behaviour
To determine the rebound effects differentiated by income regarding food waste prevention in private households, three components are needed: the savings resulting from food waste prevention, the consumption structure differentiated by income group, as well as the respective environmental impact
Summary
Food waste prevention and rebound effects in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. Taking the example of Germany and using an environmentally extended input-output model, the paper shows that food waste prevention policies are likely to miss their environmental objectives if the consequences of indirect income-dependent rebound effects are ignored. Against this background, the paper draws conclusions concerning the role of rebound effects as well as of the specific socioeconomic context necessary for the success of policy instruments linked to the SDGs
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