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Purchases, food habits and waste management in households: exploring responses to local composting
Author(s) -
SHANAHAN HELENA,
SÄLJÖ ROGER
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of consumer studies and home economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.775
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1470-6431
pISSN - 0309-3891
DOI - 10.1111/j.1470-6431.1993.tb00165.x
Subject(s) - food waste , household waste , business , exploratory research , consumption (sociology) , food preparation , waste management , agricultural economics , economics , food science , food processing , engineering , social science , chemistry , sociology , anthropology
This exploratory study focuses on processes of food purchases, food habits and waste management in the household. The purpose of the study has been to investigate what influences the amount and type of waste generated in the household. Information was collected in 13 households in a residential area close to central Göteborg, Sweden, where a separation of waste and local composting experiment had just been launched. The households registered purchases, meals served, and weight of biodegradable waste, for 2 weeks. In‐depth interviews were also carried out. At a general level, environmental concern was found not to influence purchase behaviour. The results show that the households produced a higher level of biodegradable than non‐biodegradable waste. Variations between families were found to be considerable. There are clear indications that the experience of participation in the experiment which required local composting per se was a very powerful determinant for increasing the awareness in families of the relationship between consumption and the nature and quantity of waste produced.