Household food waste in Serbia - Attitudes, quantities and global warming potential

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate respondent's attitudes and reasons related to food waste and to estimate the weekly amounts of discarded food waste and food packaging waste in Serbia. A total of 494 citizens of Belgrade, capital of Serbia, were interviewed. They had the option to rate their degree of agreement related to 28 food waste statements as well as to recall the quantities of discarded food waste and food packaging waste. In parallel, a Monte Carlo simulation was performed to estimate CO2 emission of food waste and food packaging waste. Our research revealed that citizens of Serbia feel guilty and have a bad conscience when they waste food. The main two reasons for throwing away food comes from food with expired dates and observed rotten smells and tastes. Bread and bakery products are types of food mostly discarded in Serbia while plastic bags are types of food packaging mostly discarded. Regarding food waste quantities, it is estimated that households dispose around 1.54 kg of food waste every week and about 65 different pieces of food packaging. The global warming impact of food waste and food packaging waste was quantified around 3.46 kg CO(2)e/household a week and 0.16 kg CO(2)e/household a week, respectively. Learning from this and previous studies, we believe our research contributes to the overall perspective of food waste in Europe as its based on collecting data on food waste and food packaging waste joint with comparing statements of interviewees on food waste.