TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating Students’ Food Packaging-Related Challenges and Preferences in Europe and Asia
AU - Norton, Victoria
AU - Oluwadamilola Oloyede, Omobolanle
AU - Alexi, Niki
AU - Menil, Audrey
AU - Ren, Guangling
AU - Jadhav, Nirmal
AU - Lignou , Stella
PY - 2024/5/7
Y1 - 2024/5/7
N2 - There is increasing pressure for everyone to adopt sustainable behaviours and typically this starts at-home via appropriate food-based disposal practices; however, this is associated with various barriers impacting compliance. Targeted education in college and/or the university environment could provide a viable approach to overcome such difficulties; yet, limited readily available resources exist to bring this forth. This paper explores students’ food packaging expectations and attitudes as well as information preferences in four countries (UK, France, India, and China). Students (n = 533) completed an online survey capturing food packaging purchase-based decisions, disposal-related challenges, and communication preferences. Students noted that food packaging had a dominant role in product choice. Fresh produce was considered an area for improvement, especially in the UK, India, and France, whereas snacks/baked goods were a priority in China. Disposal-related challenges were mostly associated with mixed materials. Students cited no clear information, limited choices, excessive packaging, and no nearby bins as common food packaging issues. This suggests that improving infrastructure (more bins, clearer signing) could be fundamental to encourage students to implement more sustainable food packaging behaviour. Furthermore, colleges and/or universities should consider students’ preferred information formats (infographics, videos) and develop targeted education (recyclability) which can be easily disseminated to promote engagement and sustainable food packaging knowledge and awareness.
AB - There is increasing pressure for everyone to adopt sustainable behaviours and typically this starts at-home via appropriate food-based disposal practices; however, this is associated with various barriers impacting compliance. Targeted education in college and/or the university environment could provide a viable approach to overcome such difficulties; yet, limited readily available resources exist to bring this forth. This paper explores students’ food packaging expectations and attitudes as well as information preferences in four countries (UK, France, India, and China). Students (n = 533) completed an online survey capturing food packaging purchase-based decisions, disposal-related challenges, and communication preferences. Students noted that food packaging had a dominant role in product choice. Fresh produce was considered an area for improvement, especially in the UK, India, and France, whereas snacks/baked goods were a priority in China. Disposal-related challenges were mostly associated with mixed materials. Students cited no clear information, limited choices, excessive packaging, and no nearby bins as common food packaging issues. This suggests that improving infrastructure (more bins, clearer signing) could be fundamental to encourage students to implement more sustainable food packaging behaviour. Furthermore, colleges and/or universities should consider students’ preferred information formats (infographics, videos) and develop targeted education (recyclability) which can be easily disseminated to promote engagement and sustainable food packaging knowledge and awareness.
U2 - 10.3390/su16125185
DO - 10.3390/su16125185
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1937-0695
VL - 16
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
IS - 12
M1 - 5185
ER -