Social and environmental analysis of food waste abatement via the peer-to-peer sharing economy

Nature Communications
Tamar MakovMarian Chertow

Abstract

Reducing food waste is widely recognized as critical for improving resource efficiency and meeting the nutritional demand of a growing human population. Here we explore whether the sharing economy can provide meaningful assistance to reducing food waste in a relatively low-impact and environmentally-sound way. Analyzing 170,000 postings on a popular peer-to-peer food-sharing app, we find that over 19 months, 90t of food waste with an equivalent retail value of £0.7 million were collected by secondary consumers and diverted from disposal. An environmental analysis focused on Greater London reveals that these exchanges were responsible for avoiding emission of 87-156t of CO2eq. Our results indicate that most exchanges were among users associated with lower income yet higher levels of education. These findings, together with the high collection rates (60% on average) suggest that the sharing economy may offer powerful means for improving resource efficiency and reducing food waste.

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Citations

Jul 4, 2020·The Science of the Total Environment·R AldacoI Vazquez-Rowe

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Software Mentioned

CouchSurfing
STATA
Georoute
Google Maps
HERE
STATA package GEOINPOLY
mathop
Waze
OLIO

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