Household Solid Waste Associated With Food Consumption Activities

The quantity of solid waste arising from household consumption activities commands considerable public concern. Information about the level and composition of consumption residuals and their relationship to household consumption activities is scarce. Such information is quite basic to a better understanding of solid waste problems and to formulating policies aimed at coping with them. This paper focuses on linking solid waste from food consumption activities to consumer behavior. The theoretical framework used in conceptualizing the solid waste generation process and its relationship to household consumption behavior is presented in Section II. A four - equation model involving relationships for total household food expenditure, value of food consumed at home, value of meals eaten away-from-home and total household solid waste generated by food consumption activities is set forth in Section III. Data and estimation are discussed in Section IV. The quantities of glass, metal, plastic and paper associated with selected food consumption activities and selected food expenditures, and the statistical estimates of the four-equation model, are analyzed in Section V. Some concluding remarks are given in Section VI.