Discard Behavior Research Articles

Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed household food management and food waste behavior? A natural experiment using propensity score matching

Household food management behavior changed considerably during the COVID-19 pandemic. A growing body of work has quantified the impact of lockdowns on household food waste. Yet, previous studies used a retrospective study design which undermines the accuracy of the causal effect on household food waste. This paper investigates the causal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on household food management and food waste using a natural experiment approach. Using two large national-scale longitudinal data sets (n = 8157), this study quantifies the impact of COVID-19 on food waste and food behavior of Australian households. Propensity score matching (PSM) was carried out to address potential endogeneity issues and to select control and treatment groups for analysis. Findings reveal that Australian households reduced food waste by 9% on average in 2020 (during COVID-19) compared to the pre-pandemic (2019) level. The use of a grocery list, discount purchases, and ‘just-in-case’ purchases, and food refrigeration have recorded a marked increase during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic times. The changes to food management and food discard behavior during the pandemic offer important insights for behavior change campaigns to reduce household food waste. Interventions to sustain good food planning and storage practices and involving food retailers are promising entry points in addressing household food waste. The study also highlights the considerable challenge in achieving SDG 12.3 target by 2030.

What do Consumers Think About Disposal Recyclable Waste in Montreal? A Study on Discard Behavior

Nowadays, we live in a context of social and economic crises, declining in non‐renewable resources and environmental pollution. On the other hand, we can see the growing awareness of social responsibility, sustainability practice increasing and concern for the environment. But, to have success and develop sustainable processes, it is necessary that all involved actors contribute by working collaboratively in the supply chain. In this sense, it is important to understand what the consumers think about recyclable disposal waste in the supermarkets. In this way, this study aimed to verify the perception of the consumers from the city of Montreal in Canada to dispose of their recyclable waste in supermarkets in Montreal. Qualitative research was carried out and the data were collected through seven personal interviews with consumers from Montreal supermarkets, selected by convenience. As results, it was possible to identify consumers being aware of the importance of conscious disposal to reduce pollution in the environment, despite they don’t practice. They emphasize that supermarkets and grocery stores do not incentivize the recycling process. The results also show that, in general, consumers think that it’s not practical and convenient to dispose of their recyclable waste in the supermarket in Montreal. Finally, consumers agree that it will be positive if the supermarkets encourage their consumers to dispose of the recyclable waste by offering financial benefits. They also believe that this action could incentivize people to recycle more. These results are important for the sustainable development, for the establishment of strategies towards sustainability by the supermarkets. The supermarkets can develop sustainable practices working together with their consumers, promoting gains to supermarkets, consumers and the environment.

A refitting experiment on long bone identification

AbstractRefitting is an important analytical tool in archaeology that can yield valuable information on site formation processes and on the range of activities practiced at a site, including tool production, tool curation, and discard behavior, among others. In the present paper, we use refit data from a control assemblage of red deer (Cervus elaphus) long bones to assess problems of specimen identification and representation in an experiment where bones were processed for marrow. Three goals motivated this experiment: (i) to assess how different methods of NISP (number of identified specimens) calculation affect comparisons of the relative abundances of long bone regions, (ii) to evaluate whether long bone shaft regions vary with respect to the probability of identification, and (iii) to ascertain the potential refit rate for a well‐preserved and fully‐collected sample of faunal specimens. Our results show no statistical differences in terms of patterns of skeletal representation between the two methods of NISP calculation (single vs. multiple NISP counts) that we assessed. Our data also indicate that the shape, particularly the cross‐section, of fragments clearly impacts the probability of identification and refitting. Moreover, the refitting experiment reveals that, in ideal conditions, a majority of specimens (>95%) from the NISP sample can be refitted, which leads to largely reconstructed skeletal elements. Thus, the comparatively very low refit rates recorded in archaeological sites, including samples that are well preserved, suggest that the often limited extent of excavations, along with offsite discard and/or extensive sharing of parts, substantially reduce the possibility of finding refits in a faunal sample.

The Influence of Shopping Orientation on Difficulty Discarding and Disposal Behavior of Fashion Products

Due to the rapid expansion of fashion, consumers easily purchase fashion products, the period of wearing apparel is shortened, and the occurrence of clothes piling up in the closet is increasing. In order to induce and suggest rational consumption and disposal actions, research focused on the factors influencing difficulty discarding and disposal behavior toward a fashion product is needed. Thus, this study considered fashion-shopping orientation as a variable affecting difficulty discarding and disposal behavior toward fashion products. A total of 325 questionnaires were collected, and 11 were discarded due to partial responses or missing data. Finally, a total of 314 survey questionnaires were analyzed. Frequency, exploratory factor, reliability, and multiple regression analyses were employed for data analysis using SPSS 23.0. The study results were as follows. First, hedonic and economic shopping orientation positively affected difficulty discarding a fashion product, whereas rational shopping orientation negatively affected difficulty discarding a fashion product. Second, hedonic, economic, and conspicuous shopping orientation positively affected reuse behavior among disposal behavior toward a fashion product. Third, trend-seeking and convenient shopping orientation positively influenced handover behavior. Fourth, economic and conspicuous shopping orientation positively affected separation discard behavior. The results of this study provide various guidelines for manufacturers and retailers of fashion products.

Artifact densities and assemblage formation: Evidence from Tabun Cave

Archaeological assemblages are fundamentally records of discard behavior. Lewis Binford’s pioneering ethnoarchaeological research focused attention on the differing pathways that lead to artifacts being abandoned in different locations on the landscape. Recurring relationships between artifact density and assemblage content at Middle and Upper Paleolithic sites reflect simple behavioral dynamics pertaining to artifact production and discard. In the very long archaeological sequence from A. Jelinek’s excavations at Tabun Cave, Mousterian assemblages show the expected pattern, but earlier Acheulean, Amudian and Yabrudian assemblages do not. In combination with evidence that different classes of artifacts were discarded at different rates, these results suggest that land use and raw material provisioning in the later Middle Pleistocene were organized differently than they were among later populations of Neanderthals and modern humans.

Numerical investigation of the three-dimensional dynamic process of sabot discard

The sabot discard process of an armor-piercing, fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) is crucial for the flight stability of the projectile. In this paper, the sabot discard behavior after projectile ejection from the muzzle is investigated at Mach number 4.0 and angle of attack of 0°. 3D compressible equations implemented with a dynamic unstructured tetrahedral mesh are numerically solved with a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code (FLUENT 12.0). Six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) rigid-body motion equations is solved with the CFD results through a user-defined function to update the sabot trajectory at every time step. A combination of springbased smoothing and local re-meshing is employed to regenerate the meshes around the sabot and describe its movement at each time step. Computational results show three different separation processes during the sabot discard process. Furthermore, the aerodynamic forces of APFSDS are calculated, and the trajectories of the three sabots are illustrated through the numerical solution of 6DOF equations. The results of the present study agree well with typical experimental results and provide detailed parameters that are important for analyzing the stability of the projectile. The present computations confirm that the numerical solution of the governing equations of aerodynamics and 6DOF rigid-body equations are a feasible method to study the sabot discard processes of APFSDS.

The dark side of creative destruction: innovation and retirement of capital

The process of creative destruction, while propelling the economy, also leads to obsolescence and discarding of capital. To date, there is limited empirical evidence on actual discard behavior by firms and its determinants. Building on insights from the theoretical literature on economic growth and obsolescence, this article makes an attempt to understand the determinants of scrapping, with a special focus on the role of innovation. The article uses a unique database on asset retirements by manufacturing firms in the Netherlands and relates it to a range of economic and innovation variables. We find that innovation plays a significant role in determining the discard of capital assets. Process innovation by a firm is important in the case of machinery scrapping, while the introduction of a new product in a firm increases discards of computers. We also find evidence for an obsolescence effect: the average age has a significant role in discarding, in particular, computers. We find no evidence for a significant role of output and wage rates in driving capital discard.

Stochastic bycatch, informational asymmetry, and discarding

The existing literature (i) examines bycatch and discard behavior in a static framework and (ii) treats bycatch as a deterministic process uniform across vessels. Using a dynamic representative agent model in a two-stock resource, this paper explores strategic interactions between a social planner and two groups of harvesters, one of which imposes a stochastic “technological externality” (bycatch) on the other. In addition to limitations on entry and the number of trips taken in each industry, three bycatch control instruments are compared to the unconstrained case: taxes, trip limits, and value-based quotas. Implementation and enforcement costs aside, taxes dominate both types of quota, and value limits outperform trip limits by eliminating one type of discarding. In simulations, relative performance depends upon variance in the bycatch process, differences in the ex vessel prices of stocks, relative efficiency of the harvester types, and fixed costs on the trip and industry margins.

Hunter-Gatherers and the Archaeology of Discard Behavior: An Analysis of Surface Stone Artifacts from Sturt National Park, Western New South Wales, Australia

An analysis of surface scatters of stone artifacts from late Holocene contexts at Stud Creek, Sturt National Park in the northwest of New South Wales, Australia, is reported. A sedimentological and archaeological chronology for Stud Creek shows archaeological remains are no older than 2000 years and Stud Creek saw repeated occupation during the last two millennia. Methods are proposed whereby conflated stone artifact assemblages from different locations within the Stud Creek catchment can be analyzed to understand how use of the catchment differed from place to place. We propose "place use history," as a more useful concept than "settlement system" for understanding surface artifact assemblages.

Discard Behavior, Highgrading and Regulation: The Case of the Greenland Shrimp Fishery

A formal economic analysis of the discarding problem is presented, focusing on the individual fisherman and the effect of different regulations on the fisherman's incentives to discard. It is shown that in a nonregulated fishery, either multispecies or single species/multisize, where the only constraints are the hold capacity and the length of the season, the fisherman may have rational incentives to discard/highgrade, if the marginal trip profit of an extra fishing day is greater than the average trip profit. Regulation by TAC does not change the incentives to discard. However, under INTQs and ITQs, the incentives to discard increase. The incentives to discard decrease under ITQs compared to INTQs, if the unit quota price is smaller than the shadow price of the quota. The model is applied to the Greenland shrimp fishery, where it demonstrates the reported discard behavior in the fishery. Finally, different regulations of discard are applied and discussed in the model. The analysis suggests that regulatio...

Discard behavior on domestic historic sites: Evaluation of contexts for the interpretation of household consumption patterns

Consumer behavior has become an important topic in historical archaeology, and patterns of domestic acquisition, use, and discard are often directly expressed in the archaeological record. Consumption patterns are influenced by factors such as household morphology, life cycle, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, therefore analysis of domestic site formation processes should take these factors into account. The formation processes exhibited on historic domestic sites may be quite complex, but there is a broad range of analytical methods available for examination of these processes.

A Simulation Approach to the Measurement of Change in Ceramic Frequency Seriation

This paper examines the problems encountered by users of ceramic frequency seriation in distinguishing chronologically meaningful trends from the background stochastic “noise” inherent in all ceramic assemblages. Aspects of manufacture, breakage and discard behavior are found to be important in the creation of “noise” in the archaeological record. A computerized model (POTS), which simulates both chronological changes and background “noise” in the ceramic assemblages of hypothetical villages, is used to evaluate the effects of sample size on the chronological accuracy of seriated sherd deposits. It is concluded that in order to maximize the utility of frequency seriation as a chronological ordering device, users should be concerned with the statistical adequacy of their sherd samples and that additional experimentation is needed with artificial data sets generated under ethnographically controlled conditions.

Discard Location: The Ethnographic Data

Site formation processes must be understood before the goals of archaeology can be attained. Modern and historical populations are examined here to construct a partial model of discard behavior, one formation process. Findings indicate that both sedentary and migratory populations discard materials outside their use location and that only some migratory peoples discard material elements at their use location.

The Anthropology of Human Residues

Ethnoarchaeology is a new kind of anthropology—the anthropology of human residue formation. Since discard behavior and residue formation, like language, are universal human characteristics, their patterning can be studied in a manner akin to grammar in languages. Consistent observed relationships between human behavior and material residues in contemporary societies may be posited as propositions for cross‐cultural testing and comparison with prehistoric human residues. Two aspects of ethnoarchaeology—the derivation of these lawlike propositions and the materialist approach that this effort represents—are demonstrated with data on ethnographic behavior relating to lithic raw materials among the Western Desert aborigines of Australia. In particular, this study examines the amounts of lithic raw material that are selected, used, and ultimately discarded by an aborigine man during an average year and the way in which the presence of raw materials from distant sources (“exotic” stones) in aboriginal habitation campsites can be explained in terms of nonmaterial, i.e., ideational, aspects of behavior. The argument here is that the ethnoarchaeologist is most effective when he uses a materialist approach in studying patterns of human residue formation to discover the totality of behavior that best explains these patterns. [ethnoarchaeology, discard behavior, materialist approach, Australian desert aborigines]