Estimating food waste under the FUSIONS definition: What are the driving factors of food waste in the Italian provinces?

Massimiliano Cerciello (), Massimiliano Agovino and Antonio Garofalo ()
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Massimiliano Cerciello: University of Naples Parthenope
Antonio Garofalo: University of Naples Parthenope

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2019, vol. 21, issue 3, No 5, 1139-1152

Abstract: Abstract Following the definition provided by the EU-funded FUSIONS project (food use for social innovation by optimising waste prevention strategies), this work estimates food waste at the provincial level (NUTS-3) in Italy, using official records on separate waste collection over the 2004–2014 time span. Moreover, it sheds some light on how economic and socio-demographic characteristics affect food waste levels and composition. We run a fixed effects panel regression taking into account a number of socio-economic factors. Our results show that food waste is positively affected by population density and consumption levels, while it is negatively affected by the share of women, elderly people, immigrants and unemployed in the population. We also analyse the components of food waste—the one resulting from unsorted waste and the one resulting from separated collection—and we show how they are affected by socio-economic drivers. Overall, our analysis highlights the role of consumption levels. Locally targeted awareness campaigns aiming to reduce food consumption need to be devised in order to tackle the food waste challenge.

Keywords: Food waste; Good practices in consumption; Pro-environmental behaviours; Differentiated waste collection; Panel regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1007/s10668-017-0080-0

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