What we’re wasting, why we’re wasting it, and what we can do about it Wrap Up What we’re wasting, why we’re wasting it, and what we can do about it Mike von Massow

Residential Food Waste We did Audits of all waste put to the curb Only a portion of consumer waste Plate waste Meals carried from home Home composting Garburators Surveys on attitudes and behaviours Develop an understanding of what causes waste in the home Ralph set the large context – lets now look at what we waste and why we waste it. A more individual understanding

Residential Food Waste Average household generates 3.5-4.5 kg of food waste per week 53% avoidable 11% possibly avoidable 36% unavoidable Waste is highly variable – lots of difference between houses This research was done in guelph. We looked at all three streams of waste – garbage, recycling and organic . Highlighted the food we found Waste is very variable. If we can reduce waste for the high waste people we can make a significant impact – we want to understand what is causing the waste. Describe avoidable, possibly avoidable and unavoidable

Fruits and Veg’s 50%-60% of total 0.27-3.9Kg kg per day 40% of this unavoidable Not strong correlation between avoidable and unavoidable High frequency 70% of avoidable total This makes up the biggest portion of what we throw out Eating fruits and veg’s doesn’t automatically mean that you will create avoidable waste – it appears we have people who have avoidable and others who have unavoidable They buy fruits and veg’s but they just don’t eat it. They think they are getting the benefit when they buy it. Frequency means that almost every house generates fruit and veg waste regularly

Others Meat and Fish 0.05 kg per day Dairy and Eggs 0.03 kg per day 8% of total 55% avoidable – more than half of households Dairy and Eggs 0.03 kg per day 5% of total 70% avoidable – lower frequency

Others Cereals and grains 0.08 kg per day 13% of total 100% avoidable -high frequency Other 0.09 kg per day 70% unavoidable – high frequency Often in garbage stream

How do you decide what to discard? The more of these that households use – the more they throw out. If you have a checklist and they meet any of the points then you throw it out Much more effective to pick one or two good ones – smell or appearance Best before dates are not a sign of food safety. Most poorly understood piece of information on the nutrition label

The Waste Aware Higher awareness of waste Produce less waste More sophisticated thinking Less types of waste/simple measures for waste Worried about waste Feel guilty about waste Find it convenient to deal with waste Produce less waste We divided them on certain criteria to try to understand what sorts of people waste more or less. One of the key groups was the waste aware If you think about waste you will throw less out – you use the system – less likely to have food in the other streams – they feel guilty about waste IF YOU THINK ABOUT WASTE YOU’VE TAKEN THE FIRST STEP TO THROWING LESS FOOD OUT

The Food Aware Much more connected to food Produce Less Waste Appreciation or concern for food Special diet Compost Nutrition labels Produce Less Waste The other group that throws less food out is the food aware They think more about food. They compost. They read nutrition labels. They pay more attention to what they buy That time infers value – if you value something more you are less likely to throw it out

Convenience Driven Waste less of a concern Eat more processed food Actually less organic waste at home but . . . More recyclables Eat out more Buy groceries and throw them away People who focus on convenience throw more out. They just don’t think about waste as much or care as much about it They eat more processed food – sometimes leads to less organic waste but not always – we also need to think about waste further up the supply chain. Less waste at home for processed food but more might have been wasted where it is prepared The processed food thing makes some sense – portioned food. Usually frozen This group also frequently buys food but then eats out during the week so the food goes to waste – these are the people who throw out whole vegs etc

The Frantic Family Higher levels of waste And more likely to “cheat” Often aware of waste and feel bad but can’t do better More likely to shop at big box stores More likely to do big shops Often eat out because of kid’s schedule

A Couple of Key Learnings Smaller unit of analysis is better We should strive to have consistent definition and terminology to improve comparability Work to understand the sources of variability

Thank you! Happy to answer questions mvonmass@uoguelph.ca @mikevonmassow

Wrap Up