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

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.

Automated summary

This study investigates food consumption and waste habits at the household level following the COVID-19 lockdown, identifying different types of food wasters through surveys and clustering. Results show a paradox of high awareness but high waste, positive unawareness with low waste, and consistent practice among different clusters.