Researchers from Mendel University’s Faculty of Business (PEF MENDELU) have been studying the topic of food waste from various perspectives for more than seven years. Their goal is to find ways to influence households and individuals to reduce the amount of food thrown in the trash. After a detailed examination of the behavior of households in Brno, the researchers last year conducted waste analysis in various locations in Prague as part of the Prague Food Waste project. The data collected as part of the study allows for a comparison of consumer behavior in Brno and Prague.
According to new data from the Prague Food Waste project, there is a big difference between how much people estimate they throw away and the reality.
“Analysis of mixed municipal waste showed that each resident throws away an average of 26 kg of food per year, or about 0.5 kg per week,” said Lucie Veselá, the project’s principal investigator. “However, 70% of respondents estimate that they throw away less than the data shows, and 12% cannot estimate the amount at all. Compared to previous results from waste analysis in Brno (2019-2022), there was currently slightly less food in Prague’s waste.”
Discarded food accounts for approximately 13% of mixed municipal waste (MWW), with fruit, vegetables and baked goods the most common types of food waste. The researchers found that the amount and composition of food waste is closely related to the type of development in urbanized locations. They focused on five different types of development: housing estates, villas, rural areas, excluded areas and luxury areas.
“The most waste is in housing estates with luxury houses, where people throw away ready-made meals more often than in other areas. In housing estates, baked goods are wasted to a greater extent,” added project co-investigator Andrea Králiková.
Across different types of housing, differences between social groups are evident, which significantly influence not only the level of food waste, but also its causes.
“Low-income households tend to plan consumption better and monitor expiration dates more closely,” explained researcher Irena Baláková. “On the contrary, among households with higher incomes, a frequent reason for throwing away food is that they simply don’t like it. A difference can also be observed in the motivation to reduce waste; among low-income households it is mostly the effort to save money, while higher-income groups are more receptive to arguments related to social and ecological responsibility.”
The different motivations of different groups suggests that different approaches are required, in the form of targeted communication. “Traditional tools such as leaflets and online forms of communication work well for low-income groups, while higher-income households are better reached by digital communications, such as podcasts,” said Veselá.
The research results were subsequently used to create a proposal for a targeted communication campaign, resulting in the manual ‘How to Save Food in Households’, which provides municipalities with simple instructions on how to communicate with urban households about the issue of food waste. In addition to household analysis, the project also included measurements in Prague schools, nursing homes and hospitals, with the aim of providing public administrators with recommendations on how to prevent food waste.
The Prague Food Waste project was a collaboration between Zachraň jídlo (‘Save Food’), Mendel University, and the INESAN and GREEN Solution research organizations, co-financed with state support from the Czech Technology Agency and the Ministry of the Environment within the ‘Environment for Life’ program, which supports public interest projects.
