Impact of local government waste managers on household food waste interventions - Publications

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The issues surrounding household food waste and its detrimental impacts on world climate, the environment and resource loss, are increasingly recognised. Globally, approximately one third of food is wasted (Pearson & Perera, 2018a), with Australian households disposing of 3.1 million tonnes of consumable food per year. Much of this is collected by local governments, here referred to as 'councils', and disposed of in landfills (Kim et al., 2021). Recognised as the least favourable option on the waste hierarchy (Edwards et al., 2017b; Papargyropoulou et al., 2014; Redlingshöfer et al., 2020), landfilling of household food waste is acknowledged as increasingly expensive and unsustainable (Benyam et al., 2020; Edwards, Burn, et al., 2018), yet it currently remains the most common practice for Australian councils (Arcadis, 2019; DEE, 2017).
Councils are the primary mechanism for waste management in their communities. Over time, the demands and expectations placed on councils to manage household waste have changed. Their 'legislative scope' (Brian Dollery et al., 2006, p. 556) has expanded, as have the demands on, and changes to, waste services. The differences between councils becomes evidence through the variety of their responses to these changing socio-economic, political and environmental paradigms (Byrnes & Dollery, 2002; Willis et al., 2018).  In relation to council-led household food waste interventions, these responses vary from none to complete organics diversion from landfill.  For the purpose of this research, the term 'interventions' will be used to cover council-led household food waste avoidance programs and diversion from landfill.
This proposed research aims to gain understandings of waste managers role in household food waste interventions so as to identify the rationale behind council-led household food waste management and interventions, or lack of, from a theoretical and practical perspective. The study will start with a systematic literature review followed by a series of in-depth interviews with council-based waste managers. This will both frame and inform the next stage of the investigation which will involve surveys of waste management teams. As well as contributing to the theoretical understanding of council-led household food waste management, the outcomes of the interviews and the surveys will seek to provide new understandings on how best to implement effective interventions, whether that is through policy, practice or further research.