Can food waste in households be reduced through design intervention?

Design for Sustainable Behaviour

NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Marie Hebrok

Design for Sustainable Behaviour:  Young research field within design research

 Relates to user-centred design and persuasive design  Aiming at changing behaviour through design  Drawing on social science for theory and method e.g.: o Practice theory from sociology o Social psychology and behavioural economics o Field work, in-depth interviews, natural experiments  Working on developing DfSB-methodologies e.g.: o The Loughborough model (Lilley et. al) o Design with Intent (Lockton) o Dimensions of Behaviour Change (Zachrisson & Boks)

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So far…

Review article – Soon to be submitted Sifo Survey – 9 questions Exploratory study – 10 interviews and accompanied shopping trips

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Review article

Household food waste: causes and potential intervention points for design - a review What are the intervention points for reducing food waste that can be identified in literature?

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Literature reports on: - Quantification, definition, characterizing

- Consumer behaviour, practices, attitudes, beliefs and values - Interventions aimed at reducing food waste

Disciplines: Marie Hebrok

Sociology Design Economics Human Computer Interaction Waste Management Engineering Geography Dietetics Biology

How much is wasted? Food loss in Norway 2013: The food industry Wholesalers Retail Consumers

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60 000 tons

361 000 tons (16,5%)

2 000 tons

(0,5%)

68 000 tons

(19%)

231 000 tons

(64%)

What is wasted? Waste composition analysis in Norway 2011 (kg) 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Bread and Fruit and bakery goods vegetables

11,31 kg/y

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Fish and meat

Dairy

Leftovers from pots and plates

12,80 kg/y

Other

10,25 kg/y

What do you most often do with leftovers after a meal? Throw it away 100

90 80 70 60 50 40 I don`t know

30

Save it and eat it later

20 10 0

Other

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Give it to dog/cat

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Who wastes it?

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Surveys give limited answers: • • • • • • • • •

The product has expired its “use by” or “best before” date Food is forgotten in the fridge The product has lost its quality Over-cooking, too large portions Over-buying Left-overs are always thrown away The product was of bad quality when purchased Too much product in the packaging Poor packaging

What is the most important reason why you waste food?

Why is it wasted?

Too much product in packaging 60 I don`t waste food Difficult to portion 50 40 I don`t know/don`t Buy too much 30 remember 20 10 Food was already Bad packaging 0 in bad condition… Food expired use by date

Cluttered fridge

Food gone old/discusting

Don`t like leftovers High expectations of freshness

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Intervention points Based on causes and suggested solutions found in literature

Good intentions

Planning

Value

Storage State of mind

Undesirability

Definition

Time management

Knowledge Household characteristics

Portioning

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Retail offering discount per item not 3 for 2/bulk

No food shortage in Western society

Low cost and ease of access to food (abundance)

VALUE Saving money

Influence of upbringing High perceived value (e.g. expensive organic food)

Overabun dance of self grown food

Apathy

Inclination to «do the right thing»

Externalizing responsibility

Moral motivation

Awareness campaigns

State of mind

Social norms

Inconvenience

Creating new habits

Social innovation

Aesthetics

Causes

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Suggested solutions

Insecurity (food safety)

A solution that saves time

Busy lifestyle

Lack of time

Size Last minute takeaway

Eating out

Time management

Gender

Ordering from home

Single households

Age

Household characteristics

Children

Not used in time Income Cildren not turning up for meals

Unforeseen events

Change in household routines

Causes

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Fussy eaters (e.g. children, allergists)

Suggested solutions

Employmen t/ eductation

Why would you consider getting groceries/dinner packs delivered? I like to cook / try out new dishes 80 70 I don`t know

60

Healthier food / home cooked

50 40 30 20 Other

To save time

10 0

Less shopping in stores

To save money

Better portioning

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Less planning

Wrong storage

Store carrots and apples in fridge

Too long storage

Store meat and cheese in appropriate packaging or wrapping

Freezing leftovers and bulk

Storing systems for using older food first

Forgetting food in the fridge

Storage

Changing storage practice due to experience

Smart appliance s

Placing food in the back of fridge

Cook meals in batches for freezing

Assigning locations for food categories in fridge

Causes

Suggested solutions

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Fridge cleaning

Organizin g the fridge

Preserving food

Interesting insights from literature  Knowledge does not automatically translate into behaviour

 People respond better to the notion of saving money than saving the environmen when it comes to not wasting food  They know that a lot of food is wasted, but they do not feel that they themselves are wasting very much, and what they do waste is often considered inevitable  Household routines and everyday life contain conflicting ideals. For instance: Food safety is prioritised before reducing food waste, as is feeding the family with healthy food and having time for all desired activities.  People eat what they desire, not what they have available.  Good intentions can cause food waste (buying healthy food, but not eating it)

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Examples of qualitative studies aiming for new solutions Intervention point:

The fridge Practice: planning

 Colour Coding the Fridge  ZmartFRI  FridgeCam

Fields: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Human-Machine Interface (HMI) Marie Hebrok

Colour Coding the Fridge

Geremy Farr-Wharton, Marcus Foth and Jaz Hee-Jeong Choi , 2012, Colour Coding the Fridge to Reduce Food Waste, In Farrell, Vivienne, Farrell, Graham, Chua, Caslon, Huang, Weidong, Vasa, Raj, & Woodward, Clinton (Eds.) Proceedings of the 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (OzCHI 2012), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Melbourne, Australia, pp. 119-122.

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ZmartFRI

1.

2.

3.

Manuela Bucci, Caterina Calefato, Sergio Colombetti, Monica Milani, and Roberto Montanari, 2010, Fridge Fridge on the Wall: what Can I Cook for Us All? An HMI study for an intelligent fridge, AVI '10 Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, Pages 415-415.

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FridgeCam

Eva Ganglbauer and Geraldine Fitzpatrick, 2013, Negotiating Food Waste: Using a Practice Lens to Inform Design, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Vol. 20, No. 2, Article 11.

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Freshness booster removes ethylene gas - Keeps produce fresh longer

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Intelligent appliances

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Collaborative consumption

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App for planning

CONSUMELY

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Labels to reduce insecurity

+ - Modified atmosphere - Resealable packs - Portion packs Marie Hebrok

Up/down-cycling?

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Campaigns – education, advise, best practice

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Government intervention in South Korea

Seoul has introduced innovative, high-tech programs that require residents to deposit their food waste in bins, where the amount of food they toss out is weighed by household using a key-card system. Dispose of too much food and you are charged a fee by municipal officials.

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Trial districts in Seoul have succeeded in reducing household food waste by 30 percent and restaurant food waste by 40 percent. Such programs are now underway in 90 localities nationwide. The goal is not only to drastically curtail food waste, but also to process or incinerate all of South Korea’s remaining leftover food, thus keeping it out of landfills where it would decay and emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Now what?

• • • • • •

Narrow it down Create personaes Develop design brief(s) Design process in collaboration with design studios and/or students Test Analyse

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Exploratory study (not analysed)

10 x households · 2 x young adults, single households age group 20-30 · 2 x 2-person households age group 25-35 · 3 x families with small children aged 0-10 · 3 x families with older children aged 10-18 · Living in Oslo, 50/50 in appartments/houses (blokk/enebolig/rekkehus)

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Sifo Survey

1. What is the most important reason why you throw away food? 2. How often do you buy food that is reduced in price? (food that is close to use by date) 3. How often do you buy food on offer as buy 3 pay for 2? 4. How do you store leftovers? 5. What do you do with leftovers after a meal? 6. How do you store bread, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, onions, apples, bananas, oranges? 7. Would you consider getting groceries/dinner packs delivered to your home? 8. Why would you consider getting groceries/dinner packs delivered? 9. Have you had groceries/dinner packs delivered during the last 12 months?

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