Students help combating food waste

Every citizen can contribute to a sustainable future by reducing food waste. But as a municipality, how do you ensure that citizens change their behaviour? Five students from the UG minor Future Planet Innovation investigated this issue and came up with useful recommendations.

^{Text: Luisa Velásquez, Corporate Communication}

The students carried out research commissioned by the municipality of Groningen to bolster preparations for the city's ambitious food waste campaign. Their research on the current local and international state of food waste prevention highlighted how citizens can proactively make a change. Their insightful recommendations promise to shape the city's sustainable trajectory, marking a step towards achieving the municipality’s waste-free aspirations. But how exactly did the students contribute to this novel project?

Groningen waste-free by 2030

The municipality of Groningen has devoted itself to sustainable development and, consequently, initiated the waste-free project. By 2030, the municipality aims to be completely waste-free, including plastic, textiles, and organic waste. This initiative surpasses the national goal of being waste-free by 2050.

A pressing challenge Groningen and the country at large are facing is food waste. On average, Dutch citizens throw away 33 kg of food per person per year, and some of the most common discarded foods are bread, vegetables, and fruit. These figures are based on edible foods and exclude residues such as peel. Coffee and tea are the most wasted beverages in households. Despite this innovative proposal, the municipality of Groningen still needed to develop a strategic way of addressing this issue.

Innovative learning

Franka Bergmann, Rick Dijkstra, Paula Seiffert, Iris Massop, and Lana Vasyanina (from the faculties of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Spatial Sciences, and Economics and Business faculties) decided to partake in this project as part of their Future Planet Innovation minor. ‘I wanted to have some hands-on experience before my thesis. We usually work on projects that we come up with ourselves and that are only seen by our teachers,’ says Seiffert, reflecting on her motivation.

The minor involves some innovative aspects. In the first block, the students prepare for the research project through workshops on website development, presentations, and stakeholder analysis, among others. In addition, the students are grouped based on their goals and working mentality. ‘For example, they asked us if we were morning people and how motivated we were so that they could pair us up with like-minded people. This really worked,’ Dijkstra elaborates. Having the same goals for the project eased their work. The overall experience was enhanced by their motivation to work on a real project, open to the public, which had practical applications.

What does Groningen need?

In collaboration with the municipality and stakeholders, the students started their research. They carried out an in-depth study of national and international active projects that attempt to tackle food waste. ‘To understand what we were working with, we had to ask ourselves: ‘What do they do? What is effective? What does Groningen need?’, Dijkstra explains. They then identified the most effective initiatives for reducing household food waste at a local level. The initiatives were judged on food waste reduction, user-friendliness for citizens, the costs for both the citizens and the municipality, and the lasting impact of the initiative.

Real-life working environment

During that time, the students also had the opportunity to visit the waste management facility Omrin, hoping to gain more insights. Because of the organization of the programme, they did not face many difficulties and had the tools and support from their mentors. The most challenging part of the project was to narrow down the scope of the project to the time limit they had. ‘We had constant meetings with our supervisor to assess our progress and aims, but it was more independent work than we usually do during our courses. It gave us a taste of the real-life working environment and what working with clients is like,’ Bergmann remarks.

Overcooking

From their extensive research, they found out that overcooking is the main reason for household food waste. Based on these findings and current projects around the world, they offer three main recommendations: a decision tree, the use of a measuring cup (from Het Voedingscentrum), and a comprehensive awareness campaign. Their analysis and recommendations can be found on the Reduce Food Waste website.

As a culmination, the students presented their results at a conference organized for their minor at the House of Connections in early February, where municipality officials and industry experts listened to their contributions. A few weeks ago, the students presented their findings again to the waste prevention department of the municipality of Groningen. Their recommendations will be implemented and assessed in the upcoming months. ‘The minor was a bridge towards my Master’s degree in Environmental Psychology. We learned a lot academically, but it also impacted my view on food waste and my habits’, Seiffert concludes.

More information

• Future Planet Innovation (FPI) projects
• Reduce Food Waste among the Residents of the Municipality of Groningen