Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Elucidating the Influence of Food Packaging Attributes on Source-separation of Food Packaging Waste at Home
University of Borås, Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business. (Recourse Recovery)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1855-7547
2020 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Sustainable development
According to the author(s), the content of this publication falls within the area of sustainable development.
Abstract [en]

The global amount of waste generated by households, including food packaging waste, has been increasing continuously across the world, posing a massive threat to societies and the environment. Proper waste management, therefore, has become a challenging environmental issue and a priority for governments. Along with the technological advances, such as material recovery technologies, more stress has been placed on the strategies for moving away from disposal to waste prevention, separation, and recycling. Considerable efforts are being made to not only limit the overall production and the negative impact of waste on the environment and human health but also to minimize the cost of waste management. Separation of wastes at the source (i.e., source separation) is an integral part of such efforts toward enhancing the purity of collected waste and improving the quality of materials for recycling. Furthermore, sorting of waste as a habitual performance can serve as a practice for improving residents' recycling/sorting behavior. The packaging waste, including food packaging, forms a significant part of the municipal solid waste. The design of food packaging, therefore, has received a lot of attention as a useful tool to influence the consumers' sorting behavior, making it an interesting concept for research related to waste management. Presumably, the design of food packaging can meet consumers' sorting demands while being instructive and facilitating the sorting process, thus enhancing the recycling rate of the food packaging waste. Finding the ideal form of food packaging, however, requires an in-depth understanding of the packaging-consumer interactions throughout the sorting process. Considering the different characteristics of food packaging, it is expected that different food packages tend to influence a consumer in different ways. Nevertheless, the current knowledge is somewhat too general to be used by packaging developers to improve the sorting of the food packaging. Hence, the present thesis aims to provide a more in-depth insight into the influence of food packaging, as a product and service provider, on the consumer's/user's decision-making on sort of food packaging waste. The results assert that packaging to be sorted properly requires proper design to manifest its sorting related abilities such as easy to empty, easy to clean, and easy to fold, for the consumer. Selecting material, visual attributes, form, and function can amplify or reduce these sorting abilities of food packaging.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sweden: Academic Publications, 2020. , p. 66
Series
Skrifter från Högskolan i Borås, ISSN 0280-381X ; 103
Keywords [en]
Household waste, packaging attributes, packaging waste, consumer's recycling behavior
National Category
Environmental Engineering
Research subject
Resource Recovery
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-24007ISBN: 978-91-88838-64-3 (print)ISBN: 978-91-88838-65-0 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hb-24007DiVA, id: diva2:1491854
Presentation
2020-04-03, 501, Högskolan i Borås S-501 90 Borås Sverige, Borås, 14:54 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2020-11-11 Created: 2020-11-03 Last updated: 2020-11-11Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. The Role of Food Packaging Design in Consumer Recycling Behavior—A Literature Review
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Role of Food Packaging Design in Consumer Recycling Behavior—A Literature Review
2019 (English)In: Sustainability, E-ISSN 2071-1050, E-ISSN 2071-1050, Vol. 11, no 16, article id 4350Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Household waste sorting at the source is an essential part of the waste management system in many countries. Correct sorting of this waste, including food packaging waste, is cost-effective, it facilitates the recycling process and enhances the quality of the recycled product. Although there is a growing body of research that studies the effect of different attributes of food packaging on household recycling behavior, the effect of these attributes on the sorting of the food packaging waste is not well known. This contribution reviews work that studies the relationship between attributes of food packaging and consumer sorting behavior. The review highlights the potential of the visual attributes and the quality of packaging as a communication channel for encouraging consumers to sort the food packaging waste. The efficiency of the waste management system and the quality of recycled products can hence be affected by the proper design of food packaging.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Switzerland: MDPI, 2019
Keywords
food packaging, packaging design, packaging waste, sorting behavior, household waste
National Category
Environmental Sciences
Research subject
Resource Recovery
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-21743 (URN)10.3390/su11164350 (DOI)000484472500094 ()2-s2.0-85070734878 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2019-09-18 Created: 2019-09-18 Last updated: 2022-06-14Bibliographically approved
2. The Potential of Food Packaging Attributes to Influence Consumers’ Decisions to Sort Waste
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Potential of Food Packaging Attributes to Influence Consumers’ Decisions to Sort Waste
2020 (English)In: Sustainability, E-ISSN 2071-1050, Vol. 12, no 6, article id sustainability-715554Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Food packaging waste is a valuable resource for material recovery, if it is properly separated and sorted by consumers. The packaging itself may have the potential to assist consumer sorting by, for example, communicating a correct sorting practice. This is partly due to the fact that the sorting of packaging waste, which is a habitual behavior of consumers, can be perceived as being confusing and inconvenient. Consumers can, therefore, choose not to sort. It is argued that material recovery could be enhanced if packaging can afford easy and proper sorting and separation. To investigate the potential of packaging to support proper sorting, six types of yogurt and cream packaging were examined across 15 households in Karlskrona (a medium-sized Swedish city). The aim is to investigate the effect of selected packaging attributes on consumer decisions regarding waste sorting. The results reveal that some of the selected packaging waste is not properly separated and sorted. It is concluded that the design of food packaging based on user-centered needs could affect consumer decisions for the proper sorting of packaging waste, which enables improved material recovery. The design should focus especially on the package’s visual attributes, the material selection, and the package´s waste sorting related functions

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Switzerland: MDPI, 2020
Keywords
household waste; packaging waste; recycling behavior; waste separation; dairy packaging
National Category
Natural Sciences
Research subject
Resource Recovery
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-23010 (URN)10.3390/su12062234 (DOI)000523751400081 ()2-s2.0-85083251187 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-03-13 Created: 2020-03-13 Last updated: 2022-06-14Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(5216 kB)358 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 5216 kBChecksum SHA-512
03c2d55cbf31bc61c5810feb8765773be0b2a0e255cfcf271fe43cc6cfb9b2aaae92db71b5d893ab26cbd4385874ad29bc61b3371450ac4d22fa64d08741e184
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-22930

Authority records

Nemat, Babak

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Nemat, Babak
By organisation
Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business
Environmental Engineering

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 360 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

isbn
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

isbn
urn-nbn
Total: 330 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf