Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Does food sorting prevents and improves sorting of household waste? A case in Sweden

Miliute-Plepiene, Jurate LU and Plepys, Andrius LU (2015) In Journal of Cleaner Production 101. p.182-192
Abstract
This paper analyses household behaviour as response to changes in waste management systems. The paper discusses the results of a case study from Vellinge municipality (Sweden), where the introduction of separate food waste collection is thought to have a role in reducing the total amount of household waste and improving the sorting of packaging waste. The study relies on data from official waste statistics and a survey of 117 municipal residents focusing on households' perceptions, attitudes and self-reflected changes in waste sorting behaviour. The respondents mentioned the increased environmental awareness and the convenience of food waste sorting among the primary reasons for the perceived changes in personal waste sorting routines. The... (More)
This paper analyses household behaviour as response to changes in waste management systems. The paper discusses the results of a case study from Vellinge municipality (Sweden), where the introduction of separate food waste collection is thought to have a role in reducing the total amount of household waste and improving the sorting of packaging waste. The study relies on data from official waste statistics and a survey of 117 municipal residents focusing on households' perceptions, attitudes and self-reflected changes in waste sorting behaviour. The respondents mentioned the increased environmental awareness and the convenience of food waste sorting among the primary reasons for the perceived changes in personal waste sorting routines. The study also tested the significance of other variables, such as income, employment, economic activity, socio-demographics, infrastructure, waste tariffs, illegal dumping, and awareness raising campaigns. Most of the variables were static and none showed sufficient correlation to the observed reduction of waste collection rates and the improvements in sorting other waste fractions. The analysed case had particularly high income levels, which were the main dynamic variable under study. The analysis suggests that we may be observing an example of a decoupling between economic growth and waste generation rates. This observation is explained by the Kuznets phenomena and it is being discussed in this paper. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Waste prevention, Household waste, Food waste sorting, Decoupling, Circular economy, Kuznets phenomena
in
Journal of Cleaner Production
volume
101
pages
182 - 192
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000356988200020
  • scopus:84949570031
ISSN
0959-6526
DOI
10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.04.013
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
30cdbca7-265f-471c-8368-dfdb3bce7030 (old id 7791002)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:40:54
date last changed
2022-02-04 22:15:53
@article{30cdbca7-265f-471c-8368-dfdb3bce7030,
  abstract     = {{This paper analyses household behaviour as response to changes in waste management systems. The paper discusses the results of a case study from Vellinge municipality (Sweden), where the introduction of separate food waste collection is thought to have a role in reducing the total amount of household waste and improving the sorting of packaging waste. The study relies on data from official waste statistics and a survey of 117 municipal residents focusing on households' perceptions, attitudes and self-reflected changes in waste sorting behaviour. The respondents mentioned the increased environmental awareness and the convenience of food waste sorting among the primary reasons for the perceived changes in personal waste sorting routines. The study also tested the significance of other variables, such as income, employment, economic activity, socio-demographics, infrastructure, waste tariffs, illegal dumping, and awareness raising campaigns. Most of the variables were static and none showed sufficient correlation to the observed reduction of waste collection rates and the improvements in sorting other waste fractions. The analysed case had particularly high income levels, which were the main dynamic variable under study. The analysis suggests that we may be observing an example of a decoupling between economic growth and waste generation rates. This observation is explained by the Kuznets phenomena and it is being discussed in this paper.}},
  author       = {{Miliute-Plepiene, Jurate and Plepys, Andrius}},
  issn         = {{0959-6526}},
  keywords     = {{Waste prevention; Household waste; Food waste sorting; Decoupling; Circular economy; Kuznets phenomena}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{182--192}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Cleaner Production}},
  title        = {{Does food sorting prevents and improves sorting of household waste? A case in Sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.04.013}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.04.013}},
  volume       = {{101}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}