The quantity and composition of household food waste during the COVID-19 pandemic: A direct measurement study in Canada

Haley Everitt; Paul van der Werf; Jamie A Seabrook; Alexander Wray; Jason A Gilliland

doi:10.1016/j.seps.2021.101110

The quantity and composition of household food waste during the COVID-19 pandemic: A direct measurement study in Canada

Socioecon Plann Sci. 2022 Aug:82:101110. doi: 10.1016/j.seps.2021.101110. Epub 2021 Jun 26.

Authors

Haley Everitt^{1

2}, Paul van der Werf^{1

2}, Jamie A Seabrook^{1

3

4

5

6

7}, Alexander Wray^{1

2}, Jason A Gilliland^{1

2

3

4

5

8}

Affiliations

¹ Human Environments Analysis Laboratory, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
² Department of Geography and Environment, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
³ Department of Pediatrics, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
⁴ Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada.
⁵ Children's Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada.
⁶ School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Brescia University College, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
⁸ School of Health Studies, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic may have amplified the environmental, social, and economic implications of household food waste. A better understanding of household food wasting during the pandemic is needed to improve the management of waste and develop best practices for municipal waste management programs under crisis circumstances. A waste composition study was undertaken with 100 single-family households across the city of London, Ontario, Canada to determine the quantity and composition of household food waste disposed in June 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines how household demographic, socioeconomic, and neighbourhood food environment characteristics influence household food wasting. On average, each household sent 2.81 kg of food waste to landfill per week, of which 52% was classified as avoidable food waste and 48% as unavoidable food waste. The quantity and composition of household food waste was found to be strongly influenced by the number of people and children in a household, and somewhat influenced by socioeconomic factors and neighbourhood food environment characteristics, including the availability, density, and proximity of retail food outlets.

Keywords: COVID-19; Direct measurement; Food geography; Household demographics; Household food waste; Neighbourhood food environment.