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Foodservice Composting Crowds out Consumer Food Waste Reduction Behavior in a Dining Experiment

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  • Qi, Danyi
  • Roe, Brian E.

Abstract

Pressure mounts to address food waste, which deprives hungry people of needed nutrition, depletes resources used to produce food, and accounts for substantial greenhouse gas emissions during production, distribution and disposal. Composting, and other food waste recycling technologies that divert food waste from landfills, mitigate the environmental damages of food waste disposal and grow in popularity. We explore whether consumer knowledge that the environmental damage created by their food waste will be mitigated undermines personal food waste reduction behavior. Subjects in a dining situation are randomly assigned whether or not they receive information about the negative effects of landfilling food waste and whether they are told that uneaten food from the study will be composted or landfilled. We find that providing information about the negative effects of food waste in landfills significantly reduces both the propensity to create any food waste and the total amount of solid food waste created when compared to control subjects. However, if subjects are also informed that food waste from the study will be composted, the propensity to create food waste and the amount of solid food waste generated is similar to control situation which features neither a reduction nor a recycling policy. This suggests a crowding out effect or informational rebound effect in which promoting policies that mitigate the environmental damages of food waste may unintentionally undermine policies meant to encourage individual consumer food waste reduction. We discuss key policy implications as well as several limitations of our experimental setting and analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Qi, Danyi & Roe, Brian E., 2016. "Foodservice Composting Crowds out Consumer Food Waste Reduction Behavior in a Dining Experiment," 2017 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 6-8, 2017, Chicago, Illinois 250114, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:assa17:250114
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.250114
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    Cited by:

    1. Min, Shi & Wang, Xiaobing & Yu, Xiaohua, 2021. "Does dietary knowledge affect household food waste in the developing economy of China?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    2. Qi, Danyi & Li, Ran & Penn, Jerrod & Houghtaling, Bailey & Prinyawiwatkul, Witoon & Roe, Brian E., 2022. "Nudging greater vegetable intake and less food waste: A field experiment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    3. Brian E. Roe, 2021. "Progress and Challenges in Empirical Food Waste Research: A Commentary on “Estimating Food Waste as Household Production Inefficiency,” and “Household Food Waste and Inefficiencies in Food Production”," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(1), pages 22-25, January.
    4. Myung Ja Kim & C. Michael Hall, 2019. "Can Climate Change Awareness Predict Pro-Environmental Practices in Restaurants? Comparing High and Low Dining Expenditure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-20, November.
    5. Lingfei Wang & Yuqin Yang & Guoyan Wang, 2022. "The Clean Your Plate Campaign: Resisting Table Food Waste in an Unstable World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, April.
    6. Zhang, Yu & Qi, Danyi, 2020. "How Households Waste Food at Home: Estimating Household Food Waste in a Dynamic Decision Model under Uncertainty," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304631, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Arjen van Lin & Aylin Aydinli & Marco Bertini & Erica van Herpen & Julia von Schuckmann & Bernd H Schmitt & Manoj Thomas, 2023. "Does Cash Really Mean Trash? An Empirical Investigation into the Effect of Retailer Price Promotions on Household Food Waste," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 50(4), pages 663-682.
    8. Alba J. Collart & Matthew G. Interis, 2018. "Consumer Imperfect Information in the Market for Expired and Nearly Expired Foods and Implications for Reducing Food Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, October.
    9. Qi, Danyi & Li, Ran & Penn, Jerrod & Houghtaling, Bailey & Prinyawiwatkul, Witoon & Roe, Brian E., 2021. "Does Nudging More Vegetable Consumption Result in More Waste? Evidence from a Randomized Dining Experiment," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313980, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Sanghyo Kim & Sang Hyeon Lee, 2020. "Examining Household Food Waste Behaviors and the Determinants in Korea Using New Questions in a National Household Survey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-24, October.
    11. Yu Zhang & Danyi Qi, 2024. "How to reduce household food waste during and after the COVID‐19 lockdown? Evidence from a structural model," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 68(3), pages 628-652, July.
    12. Vaneesha Dusoruth & Hikaru Hanawa Peterson, 2020. "Food waste tendencies: Behavioral response to cosmetic deterioration of food," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-22, May.
    13. G Tassinari & S Boccaletti & C Soregaroli, 2023. "Recycling sludge in agriculture? Assessing sustainability of nutrient recovery in Italy," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(5), pages 1633-1658.
    14. Karen Page Winterich & Rebecca Walker Reczek & Tamar Makov, 2024. "How lack of knowledge on emissions and psychological biases deter consumers from taking effective action to mitigate climate change," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(5), pages 1475-1494, October.
    15. Reynolds, Christian & Goucher, Liam & Quested, Tom & Bromley, Sarah & Gillick, Sam & Wells, Victoria K. & Evans, David & Koh, Lenny & Carlsson Kanyama, Annika & Katzeff, Cecilia & Svenfelt, Åsa & Jack, 2019. "Review: Consumption-stage food waste reduction interventions – What works and how to design better interventions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 7-27.
    16. Dusoruth, Vaneesha, 2018. "Household Food Waste Generation and Organics Recycling: Too Time Consuming or for the Better [Public] Good?," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274132, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety;

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

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