Characterising the green consumer: who wastes food and what are the potential solutions to household food waste?

This paper reports data from a group of 'green consumers'. Use of the ordered probit model suggests that green consumers are not dissimilar from the general population; wealthy younger males, who have young children and who eat out frequently, are more likely to waste food. Older females who worry about the cost of food waste and who know the difference between "use by" and "best before" dates are less likely to waste food. Hence, effective communications and waste intervention strategies need to focus on the "worst" offenders in terms of food waste. The survey showed that a wide variety of measures to reduce food waste were acceptable to the respondents, including the development of renewable energy, funding of infrastructure to support centralised composting and price incentives for home composting. Education and marketing campaigns promoting second-grade produce was also acceptable to respondents. The main contribution of this study is to provide practical information for local government on the acceptability of policy measures to reduce food waste