What food waste is generated in German households?

Background and Objective

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 envisages halving food waste at the household level by 2030. This goal is also pursued in Germany as part of the National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction. The establishment of waste monitoring, information campaigns and dialogue forums should help to achieve this goal. However, in order to be able to implement effective and targeted reduction measures at the household level, a fundamental understanding of the food waste hotspots in German households is essential. In this project, we are therefore investigating which factors contribute to particularly high levels of waste in households. We are also analyzing the trend over time in terms of the amount of food waste and what impact the COVID-19 pandemic has on this.

Target Group

Scientists, political decision-makers, consumers

Approach

We are evaluating two data sets that were collected by the Society for Consumer Research (GfK) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). These are two diary studies in which several thousand private households documented their food waste. The first step is to classify the newly gained knowledge about waste behavior in German households and to map its causes, differences and influencing factors. The second data set also enables us for the first time to show the throw-away behavior over time.

Data and Methods

In 2016/17 and 2020, the GfK carried out two diary studies in which more than 6,000 test subjects each took part for one year. In the data sets, not only waste quantities are documented, but also disposal reasons, disposal channels, product categories and various household characteristics. Using variance and regression analyses, we gain insights into possible differences between household types and product groups as well as trends over time.

Our Research Questions

1. How much food is wasted in German households?
2. What differences in the amount of food waste can be found across different product and household characteristics?
3. What trend in the amount of waste can be observed over time, and what influence does the COVID-19 pandemic have on the throw-away behavior of households in Germany?

Results

The analyzes carried out so far have shown that fruit, vegetables, baked goods and prepared meals are disposed of particularly frequently due to their perishability. While packaging that is too large is the cause of waste, especially in small households, volume planning difficulties are a frequently mentioned challenge in larger households with children. The amount of waste also differs significantly depending on the age structure and phase of a household, the size of the household and the size of the place of residence. Overall, however, it can be stated that socio-demographic household characteristics only have a limited influence on throw-away behavior. Personal attitudes and norms such as value orientation, commitment to sustainability, perceived self-efficacy and awareness of food waste can have a greater influence on actual throw-away behavior.

Links and Downloads

http://www.fao.org/sustainable-development-goals/indicators/1231/en/

www.bmel.de/EN/topics/food-and-nutrition/food-waste/national-strategy-for-food-waste-reduction.html

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