Exploring Greek Citizens’ Circular Thinking on Food Waste Recycling in a Circular Economy—A Survey-Based Investigation

Konstantinos Papamonioudis and Anastasia Zabaniotou
Additional contact information
Konstantinos Papamonioudis: Circular Bioeconomy and Sustainability Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Engineering School, Aristotle University, Greece Un. Box 544, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Anastasia Zabaniotou: Circular Bioeconomy and Sustainability Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Engineering School, Aristotle University, Greece Un. Box 544, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-28

Abstract: Food waste is one of the biggest global challenges. Thinking and acting for closed-loop cycles for energy and resources recovery is pivotal for meeting the Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 (SDG 12.3) by 2030. In this paper, the multifaceted problem of food waste and Greece’s national policy of circular economy is briefly given. Greece produces the highest annual per capita food waste output (142 kg) in Europe, indicating that the problem is rather large for the country. The solution to the problem inextricably linked to the implementation of the food waste hierarchy, was investigated through a survey integrating the possibility of energy recovery. The tailored questionnaire sent via e-mails and social media with the goal of identifying a snapshot of Greek citizens’ conceptions and practices regarding the management of their household food waste, and their familiarity with circular economy concepts. Results have shown that most respondents are aware of the problem’s existence, however, without considering it as important, according to 1565 responses gathered and analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0 program. Greek individuals are eager to recycle their food waste without expecting anything in return, but the majority seek recommendations on how to do it.

Keywords: circular economy; food waste; Greece; energy recovery; questionnaire; resources recovery; survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/7/2584/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/7/2584/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:7:p:2584-:d:785392

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().