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Diners waste far less food when they're schooled on the harm their leftovers can inflict on the environment. But if they know the food is going to be composted instead of dumped in a landfill, the educational benefit disappears.
When composting enters the picture, educated diners waste just as much as those who haven't learned about shrinking landfill space, dangerous greenhouse gas emissions and water and soil pollution, a new study found.
This presents a tricky situation for policymakers figuring out how to manage food waste, because the top tactics are prevention (through education) and diversion (through composting), said lead researcher Danyi Qi, a graduate student in agricultural economics at The Ohio State University.
"When you do both, they cancel each other out -- they work at cross purposes," said Qi, who is presenting the findings this week at the annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations in Chicago.
The original article information is available on OSU's web site.
People don't feed their scraps to the dogs & hogs?
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday January 07 2017, @12:49AM
As someone that's crossed the white-collar/blue-collar line a few times I know my appetite is totally different in each mode. After a day in front of the computer I am fascinated with food but satisfied to pick at tiny portions. After a day wrestling on rooftops it's entirely different. The same food may make me happy in each case but the serving sizes needed diverge. If you're talking about a restaurant that serves a diverse community it's going to make more money if it can find some way to meet the needs of both. And historically they have done that by just giving everyone plenty. You don't have to finish it.
Only you do. Americans for generations were taught to clean their plate and never waste, remember there are children starving in $wherever.
No wonder we overeat huh?
And now just when we were starting to get used to the idea that if we didn't need the whole plate of food we could leave some, it becomes a big thing to minimize the garbage.
So compost the garbage. Problem solved?
Apparently not. I get the concern. It just seems to me that there are many more urgent ones to fixate on at the moment. They're trying to imminentize the eschaton, have you noticed?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?