Investigating the Impacts of Behavioural-Change Interventions and COVID-19 on the Food-Waste-Generation Behaviours of Catered Students in the UK and India

Abstract

A food-waste initiative was conducted at two university canteens in the UK and India to examine food-waste attitudes and opportunities for food-waste reduction. Interventions were carried out to reduce food waste in both canteens. In the Indian canteen, postintervention data also included COVID-19-related changes, such as a change from self-service to table service, as well as reduced menu choices and an improved estimation of the number of students requiring meals. Surveys and focus groups were conducted with students to better understand their food-waste-related attitudes, while interviews were carried out with university staff to better understand food-waste management. The study in the UK university canteen found that introducing table cards, posters, and signs led to food-waste reductions of 13%. Meanwhile, the study in the Indian university canteen found that the interventions and COVID-19 impacts led to food-waste reductions of 50%. Concerning food-waste-related differences between the UK and India, culture and food preferences were key reasons for food waste in India, with 40.5% more participants in India stating that they wasted food because the ‘food didn’t taste good’. Students in India were more concerned about social issues and food poverty related to food waste, with around 9% more participants stating that the ‘food could be used by others’. Meanwhile, students in the UK were more bothered by the economic and environmental impacts of food waste, with around 31% more participants stating food waste is ‘a waste of money’, and is ‘bad for the environment’ when compared to India. Key opportunities for both countries included adopting food-sharing initiatives, informed menu choices, and meal planning, as well as student-led engagement projects.

Toward food waste reduction at universities

“…Another action proposed by Grech et al ( 2020 ) is related to packages, minimizing their use, and recycling them. Following this idea, the trayless initiative is an infrastructural action to reduce FW, plus a cultural one (Davison et al, 2022 ). Concerning reducing FW, Grech et al ( 2020 ) and other authors suggest that canteens could be reducing plate and utensil sizes, go trayless, adjust quantities of food made available to trends of consumption, menu options (focusing on the reduction of animal-based products availability, and inclusion of local and seasonal products that prioritize fresh and minimizes consumption of processed foods), catering styles (table service placing self-service buffet), adoption of an online prebooking meal system, development of digital applications for continuous FW monitoring, composting, and donations (Cavazos et al, 2023 ; Davison et al, 2022 ; Martinho et al, 2022 ; Musicus et al, 2022 ; Zhang & Kwon, 2022 ).…”

“…Some authors described the implementation, in some ‘target areas’ like ethical procurement and sustainable food consumption strategies, to change students’ behavior, in line with the cultural differences and strategies that educate students and the university community about FW reduction. Governments and universities aimed to embed sustainability into institutional activities such as teaching and research, or by encouraging freshmen students to study sustainability, collaborating with the community, staff development, branding, reducing carbon emissions, and transforming campuses in all activities and resources (water, grounds, FW, procurement and purchasing) in a perennial commitment to sustainability (Cavazos et al, 2023 ; Davison et al, 2022 ; Grech et al, 2020 ; Martinho et al, 2022 ).…”

Nudging student recycling behaviour: An experimental study in Kazakhstan and UK higher education

“…Some are actively involved in sustainable practices; a small group remain sceptical. Davison et al (2022) explore the impact of behavioural change interventions to reduce food waste in two universities from India and UK. They found that interventions have greater impact in India.…”

“…A difficulty arises here. Nudges are sensitive to culture (Bovens, 2010;Davison et al, 2022); pro-environment behaviour is demographically dependent (Schultz et al, 1995;Fisher et al, 2012). Studies propose education as an instrument towards sustainability (e.g., Leal Filho et al, 2019;Salazar et al, 2022).…”

“…Inheriting from previous literature, we develop the methodology by conducting an experiment to measure nudge interventions (nudges) on recycling behaviour. Contrasting countries were chosen to investigate whether recycling is cultural (Bovens, 2010;Fisher et al, 2012), motivated by similar pro-environmental studies, e.g., Davison et al (2022) which compares university students from UK and India, with different socio-economic landscapes. Mindful of previous literature, we explore for a country effect to explore whether responses from a developed country are different to those from an emerging economy.…”