Household food waste separation behavior and the importance of convenience.
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.
Water and Environmental Engineering, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden; SAGE - Laboratório de Estudos Avançados de Gestão da Produção, COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Electronic address: anna.bernstad@chemeng.lth.se.
Anna
A
Bernstad
D005504:Food Analysis; D006798:Housing; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods*; D013548:Sweden; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*
D014866:Waste Products
Convenience; Food waste; Information; Recycling; Separate collection; Source-segregation