Household food waste separation behavior and the importance of convenience

•Written information about food waste recycling did not increase source-separation ratio.•Installation of equipment for separate collection of food waste in kitchens increased source-separation.•Convenience for sorting of food waste inside the very household must be addressed. Two different strategi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Waste management (Elmsford) Vol. 34; no. 7; pp. 1317 - 1323
Main Author: Bernstad, Anna
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2014
Elsevier
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Civil Engineering
Convenience
Engineering and Technology
Environmental Engineering
Exact sciences and technology
Food Analysis
Food waste
Foods
Households
Housing
Information
infrastructure
kitchens
Monitoring
Naturresursteknik
Other wastes and particular components of wastes
Pollution
prepared foods
Recycling
Recycling - methods
Residential areas
Samhällsbyggnadsteknik
Separate collection
Sorting
Source-segregation
Strategy
Sweden
Teknik
Urban and domestic wastes
Vattenteknik
Waste management
Waste Management - methods
Waste Products - analysis
Wastes
Water Engineering
Sweden
Food waste
Convenience
Separate collection
Source-segregation
Recycling
Information
Surveillance
Segregation
Domestic refuse
Long term
ISSN:0956-053X, 1879-2456, 1879-2456
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:•Written information about food waste recycling did not increase source-separation ratio.•Installation of equipment for separate collection of food waste in kitchens increased source-separation.•Convenience for sorting of food waste inside the very household must be addressed. Two different strategies aiming at increasing household source-separation of food waste were assessed through a case-study in a Swedish residential area (a) use of written information, distributed as leaflets amongst households and (b) installation of equipment for source-segregation of waste with the aim of increasing convenience food waste sorting in kitchens. Weightings of separately collected food waste before and after distribution of written information suggest that this resulted in neither a significant increased amount of separately collected food waste, nor an increased source-separation ratio. After installation of sorting equipment in households, both the amount of separately collected food waste as well as the source-separation ratio increased vastly. Long-term monitoring shows that results where longstanding. Results emphasize the importance of convenience and existence of infrastructure necessary for source-segregation of waste as important factors for household waste recycling, but also highlight the need of addressing these aspects where waste is generated, i.e. already inside the household.
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ISSN:0956-053X
1879-2456
1879-2456
DOI:10.1016/j.wasman.2014.03.013