The state of food waste reduction campaigns: the role of behavioural economics

Nearly one-third of food was wasted globally, accounting for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (UNEP, 2021). Reducing food waste will improve food security and contribute to the worldwide economy and the protection of the environment. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address the issue under target 12.3, which aims to halve global food waste by 2030 (United Nations, 2021c). However, most countries are still far behind the target, and investments and efforts addressing the issue are limited and focus primarily on awareness campaigns. Research shows that the strategies underlying these campaigns are unlikely to induce behaviour change. The United Kingdom (UK) is the first and only country that has reached more than halfway towards meeting the SDGs’ target with a 27% reduction in food loss and waste per capita from 2007 to 2018. They reduced food loss and waste by 34% during the lockdown period. This paper argues that integrating behavioural economics into the UK’s behaviour change campaigns was crucial to reducing food waste. Behavioural economics goes beyond raising people’s awareness and instead focuses on changing their behaviour. Using the Fogg Behavior Model, this paper analyzes five social change campaigns in food waste reduction across five different countries to demonstrate the extent to which they adopt behavioural economics. This paper informs the development of social change campaigns in various countries by examining and comparing food waste reduction campaigns within the framework of the Fogg Behavior Model and thus contributes to the global effort towards reducing food loss and waste.