Rethinking organic waste: an investigation into urban food waste practices in two neighborhoods in Cape Town

Abstract

This thesis investigated urban household food waste in cities in the Global South. Rapid population and economic growth, the rise in community living standards and rapid urbanizationhave greatly increased municipal solid waste generation rates, with serious implications for society and the environment in cities in the Global South. Improper disposal of organic waste, such as food waste, contributes to greenhouse gas emissions such as methane and carbon dioIde. When a lot of unnecessary food waste goes to the landfill, the cost is high. Moreover, food waste in urban areas has also been associated with food insecurity, which has been historical seen as mainly rural in setting and hunger-based in appearance. As such, it has been assumed as being mostly outside of the domain of urban planning. However, this observation will need to shift, as poor households in urban areas have been associated with poverty and food insecurity in cities in the Global South, especially due to rapid and ongoing urbanisation. With alarming negative environmental as well as social impacts associated with food waste in urban areasat consumer level, reducing the amount of food wasted at household level is important and will have many benefits to the environment and society. It is for the above reasons that the currentstudy investigated food waste practices of households with different economic statuses, infrastructure and waste service delivery in two neighbourhoods situated in Cape Town. The study applied urban political ecology as the conceptual framework to discuss the root causes of urbanfood generation and management at the household level in the two selected neighbourhoods.A mixed methods approach involving qualitative and quantitative research techniques was used to collect primary data. The findings revealed a major difference in how the two neighbourhoods managed their food waste and in the manner in which households disposed it. Further more, the findings revealed a number of factors that resulted in the generation of food waste in both study areas. For instance, these factors included socio-economic profiles (education, employment and income), affordability of food, over-purchasing and accessibility to food outlets. The study argues that urban household food waste generation is as a result of a number of complex factors such as socio-economic profiles, location of food outlets, food storage, access to electricity, infrastructure, and municipal waste collection. All these factors are interlinked and connected and therefore cannot be viewed in isolation but rather in a holistic comprehensive way to understand how food waste can be better managed and reduced in urban households in the Global South.