Abstract
Food waste is emerging as a global issue and has been recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals with a specific target to halve per capita global food waste at consumer levels and reduce food losses by 2030. Research on food waste has been neglected particularly in the aviation sector. The International Air Transport Association reported that 5.7 million tonnes of cabin waste was generated on airlines, up to 80.5% of which was leftover food and beverages. The exploration of passengers’ food wasting aims to provide insights for tackling the airline food waste problem. To address this issue, this research investigated the in-flight catering experience of 19 passengers from 21 full-service flights. Qualitative research techniques have been applied to analyse passengers’ food-wasting behaviour by collecting participant-produced photographs and completed questionnaires concerning food-related behaviour. This research identified key factors associated with passengers’ food wasting behaviour by adopting Design for Sustainable Behaviour approaches. Four types of factors were found to influence onboard passenger waste, these were normative, habitual, intentional and situational factors. This research indicates that behavioural change interventions need to incorporate the power of social norms to prevent food waste.
Highlights
Further analysis of their responses points out that their explanation falls on the no choice available to them. Talking about this issue these respondents (P01, P02, P05) said, ‘there was only one choice’. These results suggest that there is an association between first choice and passengers’ food wasting behaviour
The findings identified that passengers and airline companies are key actors to prevent the airline food waste generation during the in-flight catering service
This study has identified that factors influencing passengers’ food wasting behaviour can be categorised into four themes based on the four processes of the Comprehensive Action Determination Model (CADM) [24] (p. 55)
Summary
Food that has been spoiled can be ascribed to individual consumer shopping or eating habits [1]. To address this issue, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development addresses responsible consumption and production to ensure companies and people adopt sustainable development and lifestyles. One of the pivotal targets of SDG 12 is to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse by 2030. To achieve the overarching goal, target 12.8 [2] requires that ‘by 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature’, indicating the importance of individuals in food waste prevention and reduction
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