System Thinking for Achieving Sustainability: A Case Study on Household Food Waste Management in Australia

Running head: SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABILITY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University
Authors Note:

1SUSTAINABILITY
A system is a set of various parts that are interrelated with each other so that they can
work towards achieving a common goal. In this essay the use of system thinking to develop
solutions to achieve sustainability challenges is to be evaluated. Various arguments related to
system thinking whether favorable or not while dealing with the present wicked problem is to be
critically analyzed. System thinking generally focuses on the interrelationship between the
individual parts and creating solutions for these problems. The problem of household food waste
management is to be discussed by applicability of system thinking. In the current times both the
developed and underdeveloped countries are facing the problem of food waste management from
the household sector. Proper household food waste management is considered to be as a wicked
problem in Australia. As per Eilam and Reisfeld (2017) system thinking is concluded to be a
time consuming process and is very difficult to understand.
In the recent times, system thinking approach is highly significant in dealing with the
problems related to sustainability. As per Chunlin and Chan (2015) system thinking has been
used by many researchers and academicians. There is a slight difference between the system
thinking approach and traditional thinking approach. The traditional thinking practices used to
focus on the major problem area while the system thinking approach lays major emphasis on
inter relationship among the various constituents of the system. In the era of globalization, the
world is going to face various problems and complexities. As suggested by () the complex or
wicked problems can only be solved through system thinking. System thinking is a holistic
approach and is interrelated with the system’s constituent parts.
Wicked problem
Household food waste is one of the wicked problems faced by Australia. According to
Rittel and Webber (1975) it is estimated that between 30 to 50% of the total food produced by

2SUSTAINABILITY
the country is wasted. In Australia, maximum food waste is sent to landfill that represent an
ineffective use of the existing scarce resources. The major environmental problem associated
with this is generation of various greenhouses gases. Maximum amount of waste that is
generated by the greenhouse gases is measured by the government. However, only that amount
of food waste is ascertained by the government, which is disposed through the organized waste
treatment procedure. As per Bing et al. (2015), the informal disposal of solid waste and domestic
foods are taken in various forms. In Australia, the waste is disposed via waste disposal systems
in a formal manner.
Through system thinking, it would be possible to disposed of the household food waste in
a more systematic and formal manner. According to Schott and Andersson (2015) more
importance should be given on the agriculture and food systems to tackle the sustainability issue.
The procedure underlying social, economic and environmental sustainability would be deriving
from system thinking of the global food system. As per Thi, Kumar and Lin (2015) system
thinking on the other hand would not be helpful in ascertaining the vital trade-offs that leads to
increase in the accompanied food chain.
In Australia the problem related to the food waste management is significant. Moreover,
on an average it is also estimated that the Australia produces sufficient fresh foods so that the 60
million people can be fed on a daily basis. On the other hand, the country also spends more than
7.5 million tons of food that is suitable for the human consumption. In Australia recently the cost
of food waste has significantly risen from $ 5.2 billion to $8 billion from the year 2009 to 2014.
Moreover, in Australia, the food wastes also occur predominantly at both the retail and consumer
levels. At an annual level, $616 worth of food is wasted from the household sector.