Referring to the United Nations Environment Programme’s ‘Build Back Better’ initiative, this project aims to help countries harness green and digital technologies to reduce food waste at the consumer level and recover from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also supporting the achievement of the MDGs and climate targets.

Reducing food waste is one of the main ways of improving food security, reducing both pollution and pressure on nature and the climate. This strategy is also likely to create opportunities for the economy and society as a whole.

In 2019, it was estimated that 931 million tonnes of food were wasted by households, retailers, restaurants and other catering services, with 61% of this waste coming from households.

Conducted by researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and INRAE, at the request of UNEP/UNEP, this project addresses several points. Through a review of the literature on the determinants of waste among consumers, avenues for reduction emerge: changes in behaviour, technological solutions and public and private initiatives. The researchers identify the opportunities and limitations offered by green and digital technologies to better guide behaviour towards reducing food waste. These lessons are complemented by a comparative analysis of strategies for implementing such technologies in different contexts in five cities: Bangkok, Belgrade, Bogota, Doha and Kampala.

The report shows that consumer food waste is determined by various factors at several levels: individual, household and society. Interventions to reduce food waste must take account of these factors and the everyday food practices in which they are embedded.

Green and digital technologies are increasingly being used to prevent, reuse and recycle food waste, opening up new opportunities. These technologies need a favourable environment to develop and to allow their potential to be exploited. As revealed by the case studies, most green technology solutions face difficulties in scaling up beyond the “niche market”. Integrated into a holistic approach linking technology, policy and infrastructure, these technologies can act as a powerful catalyst and accelerator to support initiatives led by different actors and partnerships and help countries and cities tackle food waste and ‘better rebuild’ a more sustainable economy.

The research team was led by :

1) for the UNEP-DTU Partnership: Simon Bolwig, assisted by Anne Nygaard Tanner and Paul Riemann, from the Department of Technology, Management and Economics at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU);

2) for INRAE: Barbara Redlingshöfer.

All were co-authors, along with Ying Zhang, Environment & Trade Hub team, based in Kenya, in UNEP’s Economic and Trade Policy Unit, who contributed to the overall structure and messages and led the writing of the executive summary and concluding chapter.