Curbing household food waste and associated climate change impacts in an ageing society

We explored the intricate quantitative structure of household food waste and their corresponding life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from raw materials to retail utilizing a combination of household- and food-related economic statistics and life cycle assessment in Japan. Given Japan's status as a nation heavily impacted by an aging population, this study estimates these indicators for the six age brackets of Japanese households, showing that per capita food waste increases as the age of the household head increases (from 16.6 for the 20's and younger group to 46.0 kg/year for 70's and older in 2015) primarily attributed to the propensity of older households purchase of more fruits and vegetables. Further, the largest life cycle greenhouse gases related to food waste was 90.1 kg-CO2eq/year for those in their 60's while the smallest was 39.2 kg-CO2eq/year for 20's and younger. Furthermore, food waste and associated emissions are expected to decline due to future demographic changes imparted by an aging, shrinking population after 2020 until 2040. Specific measures focused on demographic shifts are crucial for Japan and other countries with similar dietary patterns and demographics to achieve related sustainable development goals through suppressing food waste and associated emissions under new dietary regimes.

Yosuke Shigetomi, Asuka Ishigami, Yin Long, Andrew Chapman