Food waste is one of the most significant food system inefficiencies with environmental, financial, and social consequences. This waste, which occurs more at the consumer stage in high income countries, is often attributed to consumers’ behavior. While behavior is a contributing factor, the role of other contextual factors in influencing this behavior has not been systematically analyzed. Understanding contextual drivers of consumer food waste behavior is important, as behavior sits in a matrix of technology, infrastructures, institutions and social structure. Hence designing effective interventions will require a systems perceptive of the problem. In paper 1, I used Socio-ecological framing to understand how personal, interpersonal, socio-cultural, built, and institutional environments contribute to food waste at the consumer stage. In paper 2, I explored the perception of stakeholders in Phoenix on the effectiveness and feasibility of possible interventions that could be used to tackle consumer food waste. In paper 3, I examined the impact of knowledge and awareness of the environmental consequence of food waste in terms of embedded water and energy on the cognitive factors responsible for consumer food waste behavior. Across these three papers, I have identified three findings. First, the most influential factor responsible for consumer food waste is meal planning, as many decisions about food management depend on it. However, there are many contextual factors that discourage meal planning. Other factors identified include the wide gap between food producers and consumers, the low price of food, and marketing strategies used by retailers to encourage food purchases. Systems level interventions will be required to address these drivers that provide an enabling environment for behavioral change. Second stakeholders in the city overwhelmingly support and agree that education will be the most effective and feasible intervention to address consumer food waste, 3) there is need to carefully craft education materials to inform consumers about other resources, such as water and energy, embedded in food waste to stimulate a personal norm that motivates change in behavior. In this study, I emphasize the need to understand the root causes of consumer food waste and exploration of systems level interventions, in combination with education and information interventions that are being commonly used.

There is never a better time for this study than now when Nigeria as a country is going through the worst time in power supply. In Lagos city about 12,000 tons of waste is generated daily, and is expected to increase as the city adds more population. The management of these waste has generated great concern among professionals, academia and government agencies. This study examined the regenerative management of organic waste, which accounts for about 45% of the total waste generated in Lagos. To do this, two management scenarios were developed: landfill methane to electricity and compost; and analyzed using data collected during field work and from government reports. While it is understood that landfilling waste is the least sustainable option, this study argued that it could be a viable method for developing countries.

Using U.S EPA LandGEM and the IPCC model, estimates of capturable landfill methane gas was derived for three landfills studied. Furthermore, a 35-year projection of waste and landfill methane was done for three newly proposed landfills. Assumptions were made that these new landfills will be sanitary. It was established that an average of 919,480,928m3 methane gas could be captured to generate an average of 9,687,176 MW of electricity annually. This makes it a significant source of power supply to a city that suffers from incessant power outages.

Analysis of composting organics in Lagos was also done using descriptive method. Although, it could be argued that composting is the most regenerative way of managing organics, but it has some problems associated with it. Earthcare Compost Company processes an average of 600 tons of organics on a daily basis. The fraction of waste processed is infinitesimal compared to the rate of waste generated. One major issue identified in this study as an obstacle to extensive use of this method is the marketability of compost.

The study therefore suggests that government should focus on getting the best out of the landfill option, since it is the most feasible for now and could be a major source of energy.