From theory to practice: food waste reduction strategies in literature and a case study of municipalities in Skåne, Sweden
(2019) In Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science MESM02 20191LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
- Abstract
- Food waste is recognized as a major global issue that currently lacks sufficient political and legislative action in order to understand or address it adequately. Skåne County, Sweden’s southernmost county, has highly ambitious climate action goals, and reducing municipal food waste could help them meet these goals. I wanted to better understand what research already exists, where research gaps lie, and how food waste is being reduced in a practical setting. To accomplish this, I performed a literature review of strategies to reduce food wastage on a municipal level, adapted a framework from my research, and conducted interviews with district representatives to gain the understanding of the practical implementation. From my literature... (More)
- Food waste is recognized as a major global issue that currently lacks sufficient political and legislative action in order to understand or address it adequately. Skåne County, Sweden’s southernmost county, has highly ambitious climate action goals, and reducing municipal food waste could help them meet these goals. I wanted to better understand what research already exists, where research gaps lie, and how food waste is being reduced in a practical setting. To accomplish this, I performed a literature review of strategies to reduce food wastage on a municipal level, adapted a framework from my research, and conducted interviews with district representatives to gain the understanding of the practical implementation. From my literature review, I identified a seven-stage framework of the food system: Planning, Purchasing, Storage, Preparation, Consumption, and Disposal, which I then used to classify every strategy which the literature mentioned. I then interviewed all of the municipalities in Skåne which had answered a survey from the County Administrative Board, reporting that they were working at the “highest level” as a municipality to reduce food waste, in order to understand what they considered to be this ‘highest level’ of food waste reduction. All of the Skånsk municipalities which I interviewed have implemented waste reduction strategies to some extent in their school systems, performing a minimum of 19 out of 41 strategic criteria from my framework (46.3%) and a median of 30.5 (74.4%) and they utilize strategies from a minimum of five out of the seven stages in my framework, an average of over six. This is a positive confirmation of my literature review and framework being practically implemented, bridging the gap from academia and literature to tangible results. In order to continue reducing food waste in Skåne, the next steps should be to adapt specific strategies for food waste reduction, continue working to share ideas and strategies between the different municipalities, and expand to further sectors within the municipality, such as elderly care, and implement overall policy plans. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Matsvinn är ett stort globalt problem som för närvarande saknar tillräckliga politiska och lagstiftande åtgärder för att förstå och hantera problemet. Skåne län, har ambitiösa och högt satta klimatmål, där minskat kommunalt matsvinn kan vara ett sätt för att uppnå dessa mål. Jag ville bättre förstå vilken forskning som redan existerar, var forskningsbrister ligger och hur matsvinn reduceras i verkligheten. För att uppnå detta och genomförde en litteraturstudie av strategier för att minska matsvinn på kommunal nivå, utvecklade ett ramverk anpassad från min forskning och genomförde intervjuer med distriktsrepresentanter för att bättre förstå den praktiska implementeringen av matsvinns reducering. Med min litteraturgranskning som grund... (More)
- Matsvinn är ett stort globalt problem som för närvarande saknar tillräckliga politiska och lagstiftande åtgärder för att förstå och hantera problemet. Skåne län, har ambitiösa och högt satta klimatmål, där minskat kommunalt matsvinn kan vara ett sätt för att uppnå dessa mål. Jag ville bättre förstå vilken forskning som redan existerar, var forskningsbrister ligger och hur matsvinn reduceras i verkligheten. För att uppnå detta och genomförde en litteraturstudie av strategier för att minska matsvinn på kommunal nivå, utvecklade ett ramverk anpassad från min forskning och genomförde intervjuer med distriktsrepresentanter för att bättre förstå den praktiska implementeringen av matsvinns reducering. Med min litteraturgranskning som grund utvecklade jag ett ramverk av mat systemet bestående av sju-steg: Planering, Inköp, Lagring, Förberedelse, Konsumtion, Avfallshantering, och Utbildning, som jag sedan använde för att klassificera varje strategi som litteraturen nämnde. Jag intervjuade alla kommuner i Skåne som först besvarat en undersökning från länsstyrelsen och rapporterade att de arbetade på ”högsta nivå” som kommun för att minska matsvinn för att förstå vad de ansåg att det arbetet innebar. Detta är den högsta nivån av minskning av matsvinn. Alla de skånska kommuner jag har intervjuat har implementerat någon form av strategi för att minska matsvinnet i sina skolsystem och utför minst 19 av mina 41 strategiska kriterier från mitt ramverk (46,3%), i genomsnitt 29.8 (72.5%) och en median av 30.5 (74.4%), och använder strategier från ett minimum av fem ut av de sju i min ram, i genomsnitt över sex. Det här är en positiv bekräftelse på att min litteraturgranskning och mitt ramverk implementeras i praktiken och överbryggar klyftan från akademin och litteraturen till konkreta resultat. För att fortsätta minska matsvinnet i Skåne bör nästa steg vara att anpassa specifika strategier för minskning av matsvinn, fortsätta arbeta med att dela idéer och strategier mellan olika kommuner och expandera till ytterligare sektorer inom kommunen, såsom äldreomsorg och genomföra övergripande policyplaner. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8982519
- author
- Rainer, Halley LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MESM02 20191
- year
- 2019
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- sustainability science, food waste reduction, consumer food waste, municipal food waste, municipal policy, Skåne
- publication/series
- Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science
- report number
- 2019:020
- language
- English
- id
- 8982519
- date added to LUP
- 2019-06-13 11:54:40
- date last changed
- 2019-06-13 11:54:40
@misc{8982519,
abstract = {{Food waste is recognized as a major global issue that currently lacks sufficient political and legislative action in order to understand or address it adequately. Skåne County, Sweden’s southernmost county, has highly ambitious climate action goals, and reducing municipal food waste could help them meet these goals. I wanted to better understand what research already exists, where research gaps lie, and how food waste is being reduced in a practical setting. To accomplish this, I performed a literature review of strategies to reduce food wastage on a municipal level, adapted a framework from my research, and conducted interviews with district representatives to gain the understanding of the practical implementation. From my literature review, I identified a seven-stage framework of the food system: Planning, Purchasing, Storage, Preparation, Consumption, and Disposal, which I then used to classify every strategy which the literature mentioned. I then interviewed all of the municipalities in Skåne which had answered a survey from the County Administrative Board, reporting that they were working at the “highest level” as a municipality to reduce food waste, in order to understand what they considered to be this ‘highest level’ of food waste reduction. All of the Skånsk municipalities which I interviewed have implemented waste reduction strategies to some extent in their school systems, performing a minimum of 19 out of 41 strategic criteria from my framework (46.3%) and a median of 30.5 (74.4%) and they utilize strategies from a minimum of five out of the seven stages in my framework, an average of over six. This is a positive confirmation of my literature review and framework being practically implemented, bridging the gap from academia and literature to tangible results. In order to continue reducing food waste in Skåne, the next steps should be to adapt specific strategies for food waste reduction, continue working to share ideas and strategies between the different municipalities, and expand to further sectors within the municipality, such as elderly care, and implement overall policy plans.}},
author = {{Rainer, Halley}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science}},
title = {{From theory to practice: food waste reduction strategies in literature and a case study of municipalities in Skåne, Sweden}},
year = {{2019}},
}