Food waste in municipal mixed waste produced at household level: empirical evidence from the Czech Republic

The problem of food waste is broadly discussed, but empirical data are still missing. The importance of this topic increases as the reporting of food waste levels will be mandatory for EU member states. How much food do we waste? Which categories of food are wasted the most? The main aim of this paper is to estimate the food waste component and its composition in municipal mixed waste. For this purpose, waste composition analysis was conducted in the Czech Republic. Reasons for using this method are explained and its limitations are discussed. Collected data were also used to compare seasonal differences and different types of housing development. Additionally, several ways of reducing household food waste are suggested. The results show a significant variability of measured values within four defined types of residential areas and two monitored periods in 2018 and a relatively small amount of disposed edible food waste. The most significant component of food waste was the inedible part of food which presents in average about 60% of the total amount. The results also indicate that more food waste occurs in an urban area compared to rural area and households threw out more food in September/October than in June/July.