Food Waste Management in Australia: Addressing the Challenges

This project proposal aims to manage and reduce food waste in Australian restaurants and households. The proposal discusses the factors leading to food waste and the decisions to be made in food waste management. The research question, objectives, and data analysis plan are also presented.

PROJECT PROPOSAL 1
Project proposal
Name
Course
Unit
Date
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PROJECT PROPOSAL 2
Food waste management in restaurants and households in Australia
Background
The amount of food that is discarded whether in homes or restaurants in Australia in
increasing everyday (Calderón et al. 2018: pp.815). Food wastage may occur on the
production point or during the supply or consumption. After discarding foods, they
are usually unfit for consumption. However, sometimes the wastage occurs in an
accidental manner while most of it is intentional. The government have not been keen
on this issue that is why it is important to address the matter. When food is spilled
during transportation or harvesting you may regard the situation as accidental food
loss. However, when an individual or a group of people gets into a restaurant and
heap their plates with huge chunks of food but take a little and throw the rest, it is
regarded as food waste (Fisgativa et al. (2016: p.268). The above type of wastage is
what this project aims at managing and reducing what is mainly lost in Australia in
terms of food.
Factors leading up to the Management of food waste in Australia
Addressing food waste management is inevitable whether the environment, socially or
just economically (Thyberg and Tonjes 2016: p.120). When you look the at Australia,
there is the score of people who go hungry for some days due to lack of what to eat. It
is ostensible that is food waste management is implemented, the number of people
who go hungry at a certain season will lower (Girotto et al. 2015: p.35). The excess
food can be reserved and given to the less fortunate people for consumption. Apart
from that, when a restaurant in Australian throws the leftovers anyhow, they are not
doing any good for the environment but worst. When the environment is full of the
spoiled food, it becomes unfriendly. Another factor that triggers this research is the
economic factor. When people buy excess food and leave the better part of it as
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PROJECT PROPOSAL 3
spoiled, they waste a lot of money which would have been donated to the less
fortunate for support (Hebrok et al. 2017: p.385).
Management Problem/Decision to be made in food waste management.
Principato (2018: p.20) says that, there are decisions that this project sees as an
effective way to control food waste management in Australia. The first decision that is
important in managing food waste in the restaurant is the use of effective ways to
pack food during processing and final packaging. Experts should be allowed to visit
the packaging centres to assess the packaging of food to avoid wastage. The second
thing is conducting an awareness program on the importance of restraining food
wastage. When education is carried out countrywide the food wastage can reduce.
Thirdly, the next decisions are to support the innovation activities that can assist in
controlling food wastage. The innovation can assist in the transport sector and
processing places. Lastly, another decision is to data for monitoring food wastage.
Why does it matter?
The measurements listed above are important because they hold people accountable
for matters that surround the food wastage. When the strategies are implemented,
Australia may not run on inadequate food season for quite a long time.
Research Question
How does food wastage happen in Australian restaurants?
Research Objectives:
RO1:
To know where to start on while addressing the food wastage challenge.
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PROJECT PROPOSAL 4
RO2:
To get the data and analyse where food wastage happens most.
RO3:
To get the ways of curbing food wastage starting with the serious parts going
downwards.
RO4:
To assist others who may have been culprits of the situation due to food wastage in
restaurants.
Key theoretical frameworks
When doing food waste management, it is essential to involve the legislative arm of
government. The parliament of Australia can pass laws similar to that of the United
States in order to provide room for preserving food. For instance, there can be a
program to donate food to other less fortunate people. The big restaurants in Australia
can organize to save on the food and donate to other people instead of spilling them
around the environment (Papargyropoulou et al. 2014: p.110). On the other hand,
having a food waste management program in the households would assist to reduce
the budget of the homes through double spending. This will bring an economic benefit
to the country leave alone all the other environmental benefits.
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PROJECT PROPOSAL 5
1. List 3 specific academic journals you will search for background/literature
1. Girotto, F., Alibardi, L. and Cossu, R., 2015. Food waste generation and industrial
uses: a review. Waste management, 45, pp.32-41
2. Thyberg, K.L. and Tonjes, D.J., 2016. Drivers of food waste and their implications
for sustainable policy development. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 106,
pp.110-123.
3. Principato, L., 2018. Factors and Behaviours Affecting Food Waste at Consumption
Level: The Household Food Waste Journey Model. In Food Waste at Consumer
Level (pp. 15-34). Springer, Cham.
Company/industry/government sources for secondary data.
1. Restaurants like Quay
2. Schools
3. Households
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PROJECT PROPOSAL 6
2. Method/approach to gathering and analysing data to address the research.
Research
Objective
Primary data
collection
Secondary Data
Collection
Data Analysis Plan
R01: To
establish where
to start in
managing food
wastage
The primary method of
data collection will be
interviewing the
customers attending
restaurants and the
restaurant owners.
Reading the articles
and other journals to
establish where food
wastage began.
After collecting the
data from the
interview, a team
would be set to go
through each group of
data and recommend
the next effective
steps.
R02: To
establish where
food wastage
takes place
most.
The method here will
be the survey method
making use of
government records on
areas where food
processing and
consumption happens.
The secondary
method would be
walking to each
restaurant and other
public institution to
collect the data.
The method of
analysis would
emphasize on the key
areas that food
wastage has been
established and know
what leads to it.
R03: To get
ways of
reducing food
wastage in
The primary method of
data collection would
be focus group. The
institution would
The secondary way is
to go down to the
books of records to
establish on ways of
Each point would be
weighed against other
points. The
suggestion that can
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PROJECT PROPOSAL 7
restaurants and
other public and
private
institutions
recommend on ways to
curb this problem.
curbing the food
wastage issue.
bring permanent
solution is
recommended after.
R04: To assist
others who have
been affected by
the food
wastage issue.
The primary way is to
use questionnaire
located at common
points of the country,
where citizens can
respond to some
questions.
The other method is
to use the
government records
to know the areas and
people affected most.
Each response on the
questionnaire would
be grouped according
to how the effect was
serious on the person
and there after action
is recommended.
The activities that will assist to evaluate whether the strategies are important are for instance,
use of questionnaires in the restaurants to allow the customers give the feedback. Another
important thing is that the initial data would kept and continuously compared with other
incoming, this would give a clear picture of the performance.
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PROJECT PROPOSAL 8
References.
Calderón, L.A., Herrero, M., Laca, A. and Díaz, M., 2018. Environmental impact of a
traditional cooked dish at four different manufacturing scales: from ready meal industry and
catering company to traditional restaurant and homemade. The International Journal of Life
Cycle Assessment, 23(4), pp.811-823.
Fisgativa, H., Tremier, A. and Dabert, P., 2016. Characterizing the variability of food waste
quality: A need for efficient valorisation through anaerobic digestion. Waste
Management, 50, pp.264-274.
Girotto, F., Alibardi, L. and Cossu, R., 2015. Food waste generation and industrial uses: a
review. Waste management, 45, pp.32-41.
Hebrok, M. and Boks, C., 2017. Household food waste: Drivers and potential intervention
points for design–An extensive review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 151, pp.380-392.
Papargyropoulou, E., Lozano, R., Steinberger, J.K., Wright, N. and bin Ujang, Z., 2014. The
food waste hierarchy as a framework for the management of food surplus and food
waste. Journal of Cleaner Production, 76, pp.106-115.
Principato, L., 2018. Factors and Behaviours Affecting Food Waste at Consumption Level:
The Household Food Waste Journey Model. In Food Waste at Consumer Level (pp. 15-34).
Springer, Cham.
Thyberg, K.L. and Tonjes, D.J., 2016. Drivers of food waste and their implications for
sustainable policy development. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 106, pp.110-123.
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