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Explaining and promoting household food waste-prevention by an environmental psychological based intervention study

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  • Schmidt, Karolin

Abstract

Household food waste greatly contributes to global environmental issues, such as climate change or extensive use of restricted natural resources (water, land etc.). Therefore, an intervention study was conducted to promote household food waste-prevention in a sample of German households (N=217). By integrating so far identified perceptual, motivational and behavioral predictors, a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain household food waste-prevention was initially developed. Based on this framework, an appropriate intervention strategy was derived consisting of providing action knowledge, using a public commitment- and a goal setting-technique. Thereby, the main objective of the study was to increase the likelihood of household food waste-prevention in the participating households by improving household members’ performance of relevant food waste-preventing behaviors (e.g. planning grocery shopping in advance). Based on a 2×2-control group design, results indicated the effectiveness of the chosen intervention strategy by revealing a stronger improvement of self-reported performances of the recorded food waste-preventing behaviors in the experimental group compared to the control group four weeks following its implementation. Thus, the present intervention study not only provides several entry points for various environmental psychological based intervention strategies to promote household food waste-prevention but also delivers empirical indications for their behavioral effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Schmidt, Karolin, 2016. "Explaining and promoting household food waste-prevention by an environmental psychological based intervention study," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 53-66.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:111:y:2016:i:c:p:53-66
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.04.006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Ganguly, Subhamoy & Robb, David J., 2022. "An analytical model to characterize consumption and wastage of fresh fruit and vegetables in households," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(1), pages 151-163.
    3. Saman Attiq & Ka Yin Chau & Shahid Bashir & Muhammad Danish Habib & Rauf I. Azam & Wing-Keung Wong, 2021. "Sustainability of Household Food Waste Reduction: A Fresh Insight on Youth’s Emotional and Cognitive Behaviors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-23, June.
    4. Habib, Muhammad Danish & Kaur, Puneet & Sharma, Veenu & Talwar, Shalini, 2023. "Analyzing the food waste reduction intentions of UK households. A Value-Attitude-Behavior (VAB) theory perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Hana Trollman & Sandeep Jagtap & Frank Trollman, 2023. "Crowdsourcing food security: introducing food choice derivatives for sustainability," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(4), pages 953-965, August.
    6. Young, William & Russell, Sally V. & Robinson, Cheryl A. & Barkemeyer, Ralf, 2017. "Can social media be a tool for reducing consumers’ food waste? A behaviour change experiment by a UK retailer," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 117(PB), pages 195-203.
    7. Geng, Jichao & Long, Ruyin & Chen, Hong & Li, Wenbo, 2017. "Exploring the motivation-behavior gap in urban residents’ green travel behavior: A theoretical and empirical study," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 282-292.

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