System Thinking for Sustainable Development: Household Food Waste in UK

Running head: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Environmental Management for Sustainable Development
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Title: System Thinking is critical in developing solutions to sustainability challenges: Household
Food Waste in UK.
Introduction
System is the separate parts that are interrelated to each other for working towards
common goals. System thinking approach helps in addressing and resolving these sustainability
challenges (Moscardo 2013). The study is focusing on a wicked problem faced due to the food
waste in UK household. The system thinking concentrates on the individual parts of the problem
and creates the interrelation between those parts. The study would thus concentrates on the
development of the theoretical model suitable to define system thinking in resolving the issues
with household food waste in UK. Furthermore, the study would describe the three pillars of
sustainability to develop the clear understanding regarding the wicked problem chosen for this
study.
Discussion
Household food waste is one of the most challenging issues in the sustainability
parameter in UK. It is evident that UK family is wasting nearly £60 per month by throwing away
the entire meal each day. A report is showing that the most of the challenges arise due to the
ongoing scale of household food waste in UK. It is noticed that Britons are throwing almost 24
meals a month and adding up to 4.2 million tones of drink and food every year, which could have
been consumed (Derbyshire.gov.uk 2018). Even half of these foods go straight from the
refrigerator into the bin. In fact, it is reported that the household in UK waste the one-fifth of the
food of which almost 60% could have been eaten. In Britons, people are still throwing away
almost 86 million chickens every year (Sheffield 2018). Mostly, breads, milk, and potatoes are

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the top three meals that are thrown away by the UK household. The equivalent of 5.8m potatoes,
24m bread slices, and 5.9m glasses of milk are wasted per day (Smithers 2018). In addition to
this, it has been observed that the pastries and cakes also belong to the top 10 items that are
wasted every day in UK. The Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP), the government’s
waste advisory body, has presented the report, which reflects that since 2007, the avoidable
household food waste has been reduced by almost 21% to 4.2m tones that saved almost £13bn
(Wrap.org.uk 2018). WRAP also reported that UK government has failed to reach the
predetermined target of cutting household food waste in 2015. The system thinking approach is
thus undertaken for going deeper into the problem to resolve the issues and maintain
sustainability.
In order to develop the understanding regarding the household food waste, it is essential
to identify the reasons behind the continuous food wastages. Duić, Urbaniec and Huisingh
(2015) defined that the food waste in the household sometimes involves the psychological
factors. For example, people sometimes do not care or unaware about the sustainability
challenges that might occur due to the food waste. Many people even can afford to waste the
extra foods instead of giving it away to the needy people. Dawodu, Akinwolemiwa and
Cheshmehzangi (2017) identified that high quality standards and the inefficient purchase
planning lead to food waste. On the contrary, Haines (2016) argued that some upper class in the
UK family buy too much or cook too much due to which they tend to waste food more. Even
sometimes, the lack of kitchen skills affects the food quality that does not taste good to people.
Therefore, they often waste the food due to their reluctance in consuming the poor quality foods.
Many people are much conscious about the food safety and they become high sensitive in
consuming the healthy foods. They often thus waste the food, which affects the balance in