Return to sender: a behavioural approach to reducing food waste in schools

ABSTRACT

Waste is an inherent part of the global food system, with significant environmental, social and economic impacts. Rather than simply managing its disposal, addressing the food waste challenge in Australia requires engagement with consumers to encourage behaviours that reduce wastage. This exploratory case study utilised a behavioural approach to identify and prioritise food waste reduction behaviours in Western Australian schools and then analysed these behaviours from the perspective of key target audiences. This enabled appropriate interventions to be proposed for testing. It offers a targeted approach to tackle food waste in schools and the wider community.

KEYWORDS:

• Food waste
• behaviour
• schools
• intervention design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data disclosure statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the Waste Wise Schools Program at the Western Australian Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for this study. Data are available from the authors with the permission of the Waste Wise Schools Program.

ORCID

M. Boulet http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4964-1314

Notes

1 The Waste Wise Schools (WWS) program is managed by the WA Waste Authority and supports primary and secondary schools to reduce waste to landfill with educational strategies and resources.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded under contract to the Western Australian Waste Authority, through its Waste Wise Schools program.