Producing food is a resource-intensive industry and data shows that we throw away over a million tonnes of food annually in Sweden. But in order to be able to set good national and international sustainability goals, effective methods and tools are required to measure what is thrown away – and based on that, develop measures to reduce food waste.

In the project, a number of households in Borås in Sweden will receive a specially designed waste container for food waste. The containers will be equipped with a scale and camera. Every time something is discarded, the contents will be weighed and the camera will take a picture every time something passes the lens.

Kamran Rousta, Associate Professor in the research area Resource Recovery and the project leader, explained the purpose of the project.

“We need to gain an increased understanding of why there is so much food waste and which factors influence it. We will collect data via the waste container and analyse what was thrown away, how much, and when. Then we will conduct interviews in the households to monitor behavioural changes.  We want to get those living in these households to reflect on their behaviour.”

Similar project in care homes for older people

A similar commissioned project is already underway for the City of Borås. That project is about reducing the amount of waste from single-use plastic materials and food waste by the Care and Elderly Administration. Here, two care homes for older people will be pilots in the project; they have been given waste bins to measure their waste.

Read more

The project's website: Living Lab – reducing food waste in households by smart waste containers (in Swedish)

About the research area Resource Recovery and the Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery

About the project in care homes for older people: NT2W (No Time to Waste) (in Swedish)