‘Opportunities for prevention with household food waste collections’ found that habitual food waste caddy usage can be linked to lower household costs and positive feelings associated with ‘doing something good’.
The report stated that using a food waste collection system “serves as a reminder of food wasted”, making people more mindful and conscientious of their waste, while acknowledging that this awareness may diminish over time.
Furthermore, financial impact was found to be a powerful motivator when talking about food waste. Highlighting sustainability and personal financial values helps to widen consumer relevance and make the food waste problem more tangible.
Inflation is top-of-mind for all participants as the cost-of-living crisis is changing the way users shop and consider finances.
WRAP identified four key opportunities to help reduce food waste through the caddy system and beyond:
- Boost saliency among current users and encourage complete usage of the caddy for all food waste via communications;
- Connect food waste to the cost-of-living crisis to deepen relevancy and expand usage;
- Nudge consumers throughout the food waste management process to expand top-of-mind moments for example in-store or on packaging;
- And craft future communications show the impact of individual actions.
Ultimately food caddy systems will have a greater impact if user engagement and usage is boosted.
Methodology
A sample group of consumers shared information about their food waste caddy usage through WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger between 20 November to 1 December 2023. Participants were from England, Wales and Austria.
Prompts included questions regarding caddy usage, from where it is kept to users’ feelings towards their caddies to suggestions for reducing food waste.
Findings on caddy usage and food waste
England had the lowest number out of people sampled who put their food scraps in a separate food waste caddy or bin at 17%. Wales and Austria came in at 42% and 38% respectively.
Notably, across the board many users were unclear on whether their liners are compostable and the use of liners was often linked to whether they were provided for free.
Furthermore, a lack of robust liners was cited as a dislike of caddy systems and were associated with leading to unpleasant smells and clean up processes. This was linked to low rates of caddy usage.
Lack of edible waste
Strangely, WRAP noted that many users exhibited minimal amounts of edible food waste going into their caddies.
Existing research has suggested that, in the UK, 75% of food waste – which makes up a quarter of total residual waste – could have been eaten.
The report suggested that there is a disconnect between prepared and edible food and caddy usage – with users often unclear on exactly what can be put in the caddy.
Finally, SKIM noted that ‘real wasters’ don’t tend to use a caddy at all and are putting food waste directly into residual bins.
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