Browsing by Subject "organics recycling"

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    Consumer Behavior and Environmental Policy: Applications to Issues in Food Waste and Organics Recycling
    (2019-07) Dusoruth, Vaneesha
    A large proportion of the food produced in the United States is wasted throughout the supply chain, with households accounting for the highest proportion. In Chapter 1, building on the existing literature, this paper develops a structural model to determine the economic relationship between household food waste reduction efforts, organics recycling efforts, and the opportunity cost of time in a public goods framework. In Chapter 2, we classify consumers in distinct classes dictated by their food related routines such as grocery shopping and kitchen management. We then investigate the roles of products attributes, especially cosmetic appearance and expiration dates, on food waste tendencies across these different classes of consumers. We examine whether underlying risk preferences and stated risk perceptions have an impact on those food waste propensities. In addition to prevention strategies that curb the negative impacts of food waste, recycling presents an opportunity to convert environmentally harmful materials into valuable economic downstream products such as compost. In chapter 3, we conduct a randomized control trial to examine the impact on information on organics recycling behavior and food waste generation tendencies in a local community.
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    Reduce Waste, Reuse Resources: Organics Recycling Plan for the City of Ramsey, MN
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2018) Forey, Marin; Laboy, Savannah; Olson, Marie; Schnaser, Emily; Thorn, Tyler
    This project was completed as part of the 2017-2018 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Ramsey. The state of Minnesota is requiring municipalities to have a plan to divert 75% of waste from landfills by the year 2020. Many municipalities, including the City of Ramsey, are looking to organics recycling as a means to reach this goal. Many residents wish to have the option of recycling yard waste with other organic waste, such as food scraps. Recycling both yard waste and food waste requires special equipment and waste hauling protocols, making it difficult for cities to accomplish. Students in SUST 4004: Sustainable Communities, taught by Amir Nadav, investigated how other communities have accomplished this mixed-organics recycling system by interviewing stakeholders and staff in communities that have implemented similar programs. Based on these interviews and other research, the student team assembled a collection of best practices and case studies. The students’ final report is available.