WWW (What, Where and Why) of Household Food Waste Behaviour - A Household Survey | The Centre for Global Food and Resources

Background

According to the National Food Waste Baseline 2.3 million tonnes of household food waste or 92% currently goes to landfill each year. Typically, food waste constitutes between 30-50% of the residual bin. Diversion of food waste away from the residual bin and landfill represents the single biggest financial and environmental opportunity for Councils, with savings in the order of $150/tonne in South Australia. For East Waste this represents 19,000 tonnes and $2.7 M p.a. Further, in a circular economy context it is known that for every 10,000 tonnes of waste recycled, 9.2 full time jobs are created compared to 2.8 jobs when sent to landfill.

Building on existing international research, the project will utilise ongoing waste disposal monitoring technology (bin weighing) and novel household survey from a broad cross-section of the community, to develop a comprehensive report on household food waste bin behaviour, including drivers of behaviour and opportunities to deliver household behaviour change. The improved understanding of food waste behaviour will allow research partners to design efficient programs to reduce household food waste from entering landfill. Specifically, the project will provide insight on:

Food waste profiles (generation and disposal behaviours) at the household level
How food waste profiles differ by socio-demographics, knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, dietary and food consumption behaviour
Whether sorting food waste leads to lower food waste generation volumes (due to greater awareness)
Factors that drive desirable vs undesirable food waste behaviours
The major barriers preventing households from reducing and recycling their food waste
Efficient initiatives that are most likely to help households to reduce and recycle their food waste and prevent it from entering landfill

Project objectives

The aim of the project is to understand household and the broader community’s in-house waste behaviours in order to deliver targeted education, behaviour change and incentive-based programs. This will be delivered through three broad project activities:

Increased understanding of factors that drive household food waste behaviour, and how it differs across demographics; including:
- Food waste profiles (generation and disposal behaviours) at the household level
- How food waste profiles differ by demographic, diets/consumer behaviour and across time
- Whether sorting food waste leads to lower food waste generation volumes (due to greater awareness)
- Factors that drive desirable vs undesirable food waste behaviours
- The major barriers preventing households from reducing and recycling their food waste
- Initiatives that are most likely to help households to reduce and recycle their food waste
- Success will be measured through the extent to which the program builds upon existing knowledge and the depth and applicability of the qualitative data collected
Insight into the cost-effectiveness of how differing incentives, education and regulation can change behaviour;
- Delivery of community accepted and effective behaviour change