Week 2. The need for systems thinking continues

Week two’s lecture was from three prominent practitioners in the waste sector. Of all the information delivered, one line resonated particularly strongly with me:

Solving a problem such as waste requires a multidisciplinary approach.

Dr Jay Sellahewa from the CSIRO was, in this case, referring specifically about food waste. He mentions food scientists, engineers, psychologists, city planners and architects as some of the fields that should work more closely to reduce food waste. Examples given in his talk painted a picture of a complex web of competing interests and planning decisions which lead to higher levels of food waste in our cities, making the case for a wide variety of professionals to work together.

Why do we need to reduce our food waste? The European Commission says that it will help in the “creation of a more sustainable food supply chain and to achieve more efficient use of resources.” (European Commission, 2018. p12)

Some statistics:

• 20% of food purchased is thrown away
• 40% of the average household garbage bin is food
• The cost of thrown away food is $88 billion per year.

When thinking of food waste we often think only of the waste thrown away when we do not eat all of our food. Yet, Mr Sellahewa noted that food waste occurs across the food supply chain—from agriculture, to production, to transport, and then to consumption.

Mr Sellahewa also mentioned that food labelling can be a factor in people throwing out food. The difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates are not widely understood and people will throw out food with a ‘best before’ date when the product may still be edible for another week or more.

Waste is a by product of human settlement and in larger urban areas it needs to be managed for reasons of public health, environmental protection, and aesthetics (Talebal Islam, Randwick Council). If we are going to tackle food wastein a multidisciplinary way, then we are going to have to look very broadly, and policy frameworks and how they intersect will be a crucial tool. In fact, Mr Islam (speaker, week 2) believes that policy the most important factor in waste management, and spoke of how one jurisdictions policies can negatively override and impact another.

Some possible interventions:

• Optimise the food supply chain (will involve packaging designs)
• Peri-urban agriculture (farmers markets, locally grown food)
• Hyper-local food — growing on balconies
• Reducing food waste
• Using food waste in energy generation.

Mr Sellahewa divided the interventions into incremental and innovative – suggesting that 3D printed food and engineered foods such as meat may reduce the energy needs of food production and somewhat reduce environmental impacts of food waste.

For planners, they spelled out a few areas of focus as it pertains to the reduction of food waste:

• Location and size of supermarkets (do people have to drive there and does the frequency of access determine the amount of food bought?)
• Energy and pollution costs from home delivery of food
• Size of home kitchens (less space = less cooking)
• Facilities to enable waste reduction, disposal and recycling
• Industrial ecosystems such as using waste heat.

Changes in consumer behaviour and attitudes to food waste are a particular area of interest to me as a designer of experiences and services. That will be another post!