Households’ Food Waste Behavior at Local Scale: A Cluster Analysis after the COVID-19 Lockdown

Vera Amicarelli, Caterina Tricase, Alessia Spada and Christian Bux
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Vera Amicarelli: Department of Economics, Management and Business Law, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70124 Bari, Italy
Caterina Tricase: Department of Economics, University of Foggia, 71121 Foggia, Italy
Alessia Spada: Department of Economics, University of Foggia, 71121 Foggia, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: The reduction of food waste, especially in households where more than half of its global quantity is generated, has become an increasing economic, social and environmental concern, and represents one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals within the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. In this context, the COVID-19 lockdown has significantly changed life, work and food consumption habits all over the world, highlighting food waste as a multi-sectorial issue. This paper explores current attitudes, perception and behavioral patterns related to food waste reduction at domestic consumption at the local scale (Apulia region, Italy), with the aim of identifying different types of “food wasters”. Through an online questionnaire and the application of a k-means clustering model, the authors focus on four emerging constructs in terms of food consumption and food waste habits after the COVID-19 lockdown at household level. Among three theoretical clusters, results have highlighted: (i) the paradox of the “green wasters”, which declared a high level of awareness of the food waste issue but also generates huge amounts of thrown away food; (ii) the “positive unawareness” of the “red wasters”, which have a slight notion of environment and sustainability but waste low quantities of food; (iii) the consistency of the “blue wasters”, which know of the food waste issue and convert theory into practice.

Keywords: food waste; food security; cluster analysis; consumer behavior; COVID-19 pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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