UNDERUTILIZATION OF RESOURCES

CS-23-DAT-1-PO-08
Martin Poscholann Tielemans
Frederik Brandi Nielsen
Jonas Søgaard Degn
Andreas Lynnerup
Jacob Brøndum Thomsen

Abstract

This project aims to address the issues r elated to food waste in households
which is a significant part of the broader issue, that is underut ilization of
resources. Households are accountable for a substanial part of food loss in
Denmark, specifically in eur ope 54% of all loss of food stems from household
food waste. There are notable challenges regarding the m inimizat ion of food
waste from households , among these are meal planning complexity and
standardized product sizes in grocery store s. This paper proposes an IT
solution that decreases the frict ion and difficulty associat ed with utilizing
leftovers and ingr edients for meal planning.
 Un d eru t i liz a ti o n of r es ourc es

Table of contents

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 3

1 Ch al le nge s of E x ce ss and Un de rut il iz e d RE S O U RC E S ....................................... 4

1. 1 S h ar in g Ec o no my as a S o lu t i on ...................................................................... 4
1. 2 R et h ink i ng T h e A p pr o ac h to S har i n g Ec o no my ................................................ 4
1. 3 I ne ff ec t iv e R es o ur c e Us e in G en er a l .............................................................. 5
1. 3. 1 M ax i miz i n g Res o ur c es T hr ou g h S ha re d L iv i ng ........................................... 5
1. 3. 2 Ur ba n R o of to p F ar mi n g In n ov a t io n ........................................................... 5
1. 3. 3 R eus e o f pr od uc ts i n c l ot h in g i n dus try ...................................................... 6
1. 4 O v er pr od uc ti o n In Th e M od er n W or ld ............................................................. 7
1. 4. 1 Th e G lo b a l F as h i on I n dus try 's O v er pr o duc t io n D i le m m a ............................. 7
1. 4. 2 Th e G r ow i ng Wa s te Is s u e wi t hi n E l ec tr on ic s Pro d uc t i on ............................. 8
1. 4. 3 O v er pr o duc t io n an d Fo o d W as t e f or S us t a in a b il i ty ..................................... 9

2 F ood a s an U nd er ut iliz ed R e sou r ce ................................................................. 11

2. 1 G l o ba l L os s a n d W as t e ................................................................................ 11
2. 2 Fo o d Los s an d Wa s te Pr oc es s es .................................................................. 12

3 Imp a ct of Hou se hol d Foo d W a st e .................................................................... 14

3. 1 A N at i o na l Per s p e c tiv e o n Fo o d W as t e i n De n ma rk ........................................ 14
3. 2 A Soc i et a l P er s pe c tiv e o n Fo o d W as t e ......................................................... 15
3. 3 Th e B e ne f its o f Fo od W as t e Re d uc t i on ......................................................... 16
3. 4 R es p o ns i b i l ity a n d Ac c o un t ab i l ity f or F oo d W as t e .......................................... 17

PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................ 19

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS ............................................................................. 20

REFRENCES ............................................................................................ 21

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INTRODUCTION
The moder n wor ld is filled wit h products in all areas of lif e . Consumers are con-
stantly advert ised to about the newest tr ends and respective products all so that
the producers can earn more revenue. By itself , this is not exactly problemat ic,
but the creation of these products cost resources that often are non-renewable in
some way. The Earth does not have an infinite amount of these resources, which
causes this to be extremely problematic. Furthermore, the environment is im-
pacted in terms of carbon -dioxide emissions, landf ills and much more.

This project therefor e set out to analyse and under stand the variety of pr oblems
associated with the underut ilization of r esources and has resulted in a mor e spe-
cific analysis of food waste in households with a f ocus on Denmark. Init ially, the
focus was on the pr oblems associated with Sharing Eco nomy, which is an um-
brella term that covers solut ions r evolving around the sharing of resources in
society; thereby covering underut ilizat ion of cars, houses, food, and a plethora of
areas. However, this paper determined that the reason Sharing Economy is a
solution in the first place is due to certain underlying issues such as overpr oduc-
tion and an underut ilisat ion of resources . As these are very broad, the subcate-
gories were looked at to determine the most appropr iate area to propose a solu-
tion for. Her e the decision was weighted based on a possible solution being lo-
cal/national to Denmark , maximizing the resource use and with a focus on IT
solutions. This project is lim ited to a proposal of such a solut ion and possible
requirements and will therefore not go into the specif ics of how this could be
implemented.

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1 CHALLENGES OF EXCESS AND UNDERUTILIZED RE-

SOURCES
An emerging trend in society that is growing quite fast (Yaraghi & Ravi, 2017) is
“Shar ing Economy” where resources, such as cars, apartments, office space, etc.,
are shared to incr ease utilization. Among these terms, “Sharing Economy” is the
most prominent and commonly used as an umbrella term to encompass the gig,
peer-to-peer, and collabor ation economy , which is only a handful of the popular
definit ions. They all have in common that they descr ibe an economy based on
sharing goods through platforms that ar e peer -to- peer ( Richardson, 2015) . Fur-
thermore, they are changing the way society inter acts and disrupting the former
ideas of ownership, since these economies are offering an alt ernative to original
consumer ism, which is based on complete owner ship. The sharing economy
makes it possible to consume /use without possession (Belk, 2013) .

1.1 SHARING ECONOMY AS A SOLUTION

Shar ing is not a new concept but has existed for centur ies as either a form of
community or way of increasing shared product ivity. Though, where a sharing
economy differs from normal shar ing is the increased outreach of collaboration.
As stated by Belk, tradit ionally ” sharing is more likely to take place within family,
close kin, and fr iends than among strangers ” (Belk, 2013) . This change in shar ing
mainly occurred because of the digital age where new forms of collaborat ion ap-
peared wit h popular platforms like YouTube, which in the beginning had no ex-
pectation of a monet ary return (or other) on the shared m edia. Other platforms
like eBay facilitat e the selling and buying of already manufactured goods on a
global scale, but wit h a for -profit angle (Belk, 2013) .

Recently traditional forms of sharing like hitchhiking, car- and home-borrowing

have been transform ed by this digital age to modern concept s, where user and
“producer”/ lender can be connect ed out of original bounds like friendship and
work-relations using IT systems. The m ost popular ized executions of this are
“Uber”, “Lyft” (The Business Research Company, 2020) and “Airbnb” (Woodward,
2023). These services are growing in popularity and outreach together with t he
whole of the Shar ing Economy . In 2014, the market value was at 14 billion dollars,
but it is est imated t o grow more than 20 t imes to a value of 335 billion dollars in
2025, according to an Indian governa nce study in 2017 (Yaraghi & Ravi, 2017) .

1.2 RETHINKING THE APPROACH TO SHARING ECONOMY

IT systems are at the core of the Sharing Economy and are of ten used as a solu-
tion. For example, Uber is essent ially a coordinated pairing of a dr iver and a
passenger based on certain coor dinates and destinations, so the difficulty in
building Uber lies in building a successf ul IT application , wher e users can connect

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with available drivers for transportat ion easily. Likewise, Air bnb is also 'merely'
an IT solut ion, since the platform facilitates the discovery and booking of available
rental homes, which is precisely t he value Airbnb cr eates for its hosts and guests .
Solutions often result in a negat ive outcome for at least one of the stakeholders,
however, suggest ing another IT system as a solution to these exist ing platform s
seems less benef icial than solving t he r ooted issues. Furthermore, the scale of
such a solution revolves around either fixing or creating a new globalized IT sys-
tem, which is likely outside the scope of our project.

To emphasize, even though the Sharing Economy is spoken in connection with a

greener fut ure and a more product ive society, it seems to only be a solut ion f or a
more root issue. The uptrend of this economy can be related to the massive over-
product ion that occur s in society together with these resources going by underut i-
lized (Richardson, 2015) . It is therefore more benef icial to solve these root issues,
rather than adding to the plet hora of solut ions within the sharing econom y.

1.3 INEFFECTIVE RESOURCE USE IN GENERAL

1.3.1 Maximizing Resources Through Shared Living
Numerous couples or individuals, unite worldwide to leverage the untapped re-
sources and cost savings of communal living. They combine t heir unused as-
sets, participate in joint cooking endeavours, and share meals in order to har-
ness the full potent ial of their shar ed living space . This idea of living toget her is
usually more appealing to younger people, including families and individuals
who want affordable homes near their work, fun places, and t hings to do. In this
unique way of living, everyone can use the kitchen and there are areas for kids
to play, things to do together , and gardens that everyone helps look after. All
these init iat ives make sure they ar e using all their resources wisely and to its
full capacity. (Madden, 2015)

1.3.2 Urban Rooftop Farming Innovation

Rooftop p latforms have been developed to shar e spaces for farming or recrea-
tional pur poses. In Vancouver , North America, Alterus Syst ems Inc . have done
something quite f ascinat ing: they transfor med a 6,000-square- foot section on the
roof of a parking str ucture into a hydroponic farm where plants grow vert ically .
The pr imary objective of this effort was t o utilize the empty rooftop space of the
parking facility for cult ivat ing cr ops such as kale, spinach, and arugula (Madden,
2015) through an inventive hydroponic method, enabling vertical growth without
relying on traditional soil. By consistent ly harvest ing fresh, locally sourced pro-
duce throughout the year, this init iative ef fectively reduced the demand for trans-
portation, leading to a noteworthy reduction in t he related carbon emissions.
(Madden, 2015)

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1.3.3 Reuse of Products in Clothing Industry

People often have clothing and fashion it ems that are r arely used. Platforms can
make it easy to shar e and borrow clothing for special occasions or fashion needs ,
but it is also a very popular way to make use of unused resources and t hereby
clothes. An interest ing example is the research that some Computer Science stu-
dents from Skopje, Republic of Macedonia was doing in 2019. The idea of their
novel platform was to create a space for sharing clot hes that were useful to their
owner s. On top of that the intention was also to create the possibility to rent out
expensive clothes for special occasions. Many other successf ul clot hing compa-
nies are also based on the sharing clothes concept such as (“Rent the Runway”
in USA,” Gir l Meets Dress” in UK,” Chic - by-choice” in EU and” Glam Corner” in
Australia”, section 2 l. 7 -9"). (Todorovska, et al., 2020) . These are all examples
of how to utilize unused resources, when it
comes to clothes.

Upon these business successes, the group

decided to do resear ch into unused clothing
in their own count ry. The investigation
showed that 9,7% of the owner's clot hes
were thrown away, 23,7% was used for
something else, 63,8% was given away, and
only 3,8% was sold again. (Todorovska, et
al., 2020)
Figure 1 (Todorovska, et al., 2020)
The research was based on 340 individuals
from their own count ry . The group reached
the conclusion in their research that about
half of the populat ion , 49,3%, was willing to
use an online platform for clothing shar ing.
Figure 2 shows a visual representa tion of
the group's research results. (Todorovska,
et al., 2020)

While the shar ing of resources is a n effec-

tive solution and utilization of available re- F i g u r e 2 ( T o d o r o v s k a , e t a l . , 2 0 2 0 )
sources, it is in many cases not an IT solu-
tion. Living together and making use of rooftops for
harvest ing crops are simply pract ical solutions, however it does not necessarily
have anything to do with an IT application, thus making it unr elated to our projects
scope. Clothing wast e is , however, a problem that could possibly be solved wit h
a software solut io n. Though, as explained in the next sect ion, the clothing indus-
try has a deeper-root ed issue, which a local IT solut ion or soft ware applicat ion is
not capable of solving.

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1.4 OVERPRODUCTION IN THE MODERN WORLD

Overproduct ion is a leading issue in modern econom ics . It occurs when compa-
nies produce more goods or services t han can be sold to consumers. While it
sounds counter intuitive for overproduction to be a problem , it comes with a lot of
hidden costs that can have disadvant ages for the companies, the consumer and
the envir onment. This part of the problem analysis will go through some common
areas for over production to put some num bers on the scale of the issue at hand.

1.4.1 The Global Fashion Indust ry's Overproduction Dilemma

As previously stated, there is a big issue with clothing waste , which is not only
because of underutilizat ion but also overproduct ion . This pr oblem is manifested
in the disposal of stagger ing quant ities of unused clothing annually, and it carries
signif icant envir onm ental consequences. Denmark, for instance, discards 677
tons of brand- new clothing each year, representing just one country's contribut ion
to this global issue . (Danmarks Naturfredningsforening, 2022)

On a worldwide scale, it is est imated that approximately 30 percent of the wor ld' s
apparel pr oduct ion is never destined f or sale. This overproduction problem is
rooted in the fashion ind ustry's astonishing output of 150 billion garments annu-
ally. (Fashinza, 2022)

The root cause of this overproduct ion transcends mere consumer overconsump-
tion and rests with the firms themselves. These companies f ind it economically
advant ageous to produce in excess, as the cost -effect iveness of clothing manu-
facturing has reached unprecedent ed levels (Danmarks Nat urfredningsforening,
2022). Rat her than engaging in meticulous calculat ions, they opt for mass pro-
duction. While this approach may appear profitable for these firms, it poses a
formidable challenge to the environment. The product ion of excess clothing ne-
cessitates the ut ilization of additional energy and results in heightened CO2 em is-
sions both during pr oduct ion and disposal.

To delve deeper int o this issue, it is essential to understand the economic dy-
namics at play. Businesses with a high -volume business model often find it more
cost-effective to order goods in lar ge bat ches. The cost per it em decreases when
larger quantit ies are ordered, allowing t hem to save money (Fashinza, 2022) .
These excess items can then be sold at a discount while st ill maintaining a prof it
margin, thereby perpetuating the cycle of overproduction. Overproduct ion in the
clothing industry is a pressing global issue with profound environmental implica-
tions. The root causes lie in the cost -eff ectiveness of mass product ion and the
fast fashion model.

A substantial amount of clothing waste stems from purposeful over production,

and thus the pr oblem resides early in the supply chain. While the overproduct ion
does pose signif icant envir onmental and economic concerns, solving

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overproduction in the clothing industry would require a solut ion to tackle the cost -
effectiveness of mass -producing clothes as well as adapt to the ever -changing
nature of fashion . There are furthermore a range of stakeholders each wit h their
own interests regarding the clothing industry, and thus it becomes very difficult
to develop a singular solut ion . Although it is likely a solvable problem, the scale
of an appropr iate solution is outside the scope of the project’ ability and purpose.
Therefore, it is worthwhile to explor e other areas with specific challenges that
could be addressed using a localized IT system.

1.4.2 The Growing Waste Issue within Electronics Production

Another area susceptible to overproduction is the electronics industry. A de crease
in the over all cost of electronic goods and services combined with an incr ease in
the quality of such products have resulted in increased purchasing power for in-
dividuals. A range of electronic devices once reserved for only the r ich have over
time become everyday applications for most of the western world. Consider the
advanced and capable mobile phon es a person would carry in their pockets or the
highly advanced 4K HDR 50” TV and all t he electronics embedded in it, that costs
less than a simple table made from cheap wood. (Bureau of Labor statistics, 2015)

In more detail, the price of personal computers and peripheral equipm ent has
decreased by 95,8% from 1998 to 2015 , while televisions have decreased by
94,5% in the same period (Bureau of Labor statistics, 2015) . There are two fun-
damental cons equences of this development. Firstly, a decrease in pr ices aut o-
matically leads to an increase in spending, in accordance with demand and supply
power s. This fact in and of itself is not necessar ily a problem, however. The prob-
lem occurs in conjunction wit h the fact that most of these electronic devices have
improved significant ly over time, introducing new features and capabilities every
year. What once was top-notch is old news. As such, when electronic devices
become worn- out, it is often not a big financial cost to upgrade to a device wit h
more impressive feat ures, capabilit ies and speed than your pr evious device. Per-
haps a device with more features than your old phone has become cheaper than
when you bought your own. It therefore makes little sense t o not upgrade your
phone to a new one, be it at the cost of throwing out something that still works or
buying a different used phone at a smaller price.

Speaking of throwing out unused electronics, an art icle from the BBC highlights
the large number of p hones that wer e thrown away in 2022, namely 5 .3 billion
phones (Gill, 2022) . With a total estimated 16 billion phones worldwide, almost a
third of these are no longer in use and will be thrown out. Furt hermore, research
from the Global E-Waste Monitor showcases that electr ical and electronic wast e
will total 74 million tons by 2030 (Fort, et al., 2020) .

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Suffice it to say that there are large amounts of waste when it comes to electrical
and electronic devices. Unfortunately, only about 17% of e - waste is proper ly re-
cycled, the BBC wr it es (Gill, 2022) , and thus there are sever al relevant issues
regarding overproduction of electronic devices. First ly, many phones are thrown
out even if they are still working and useful , but due to the rapid technologi cal
improvement, the desire to buy newer pr oducts is ever increasing, thus creat ing
a lot of waste. Secondly, this waste is unfortunately not recycled properly, and
thus a lot of material is going to be wasted that would st ill be useful.

The discussion on overproduction within electronics has an undeniab le impact

regarding waste and sustainability . Furthermore, the production is st ill growing
and at such a rapid pace, that the technological innovat ion and consequent waste
proves a significant challenge to over come - requiring a multifaceted approach
on both economic and technological dim ensions. There are already a var iety of
ongoing ef forts trying to address the electronic waste and recycling rates . Con-
sidering the project scope, a possible IT solution to fix the vastness of this prob-
lem area seems out- of-bounds. Furtherm ore, the overproduction of electronics is
a big pr oblem , but is comparat ively not a s pressing as food waste and the current
misdistribution of food resources on a global scale , which impacts m illions of
people direct ly - even being the cause of famine in extreme cases (Hunger notes,
2018).

1.4.3 Overproduction and Food Waste for Sustainability

Global food wast e is an important problem to address in order to realize sustain-
able development objectives such as wor ld food security. Food production glob-
ally is very resource intensive . It is contributing to 19 -29% of all greenhouse gas
emissions wor ldwide (Vermeulen, et al., 2012) and accounts for around 70% of
global freshwater use (Lamaire & Limbourg, 2019) . However, as a result 30-80%
of food and nutrit ional value is discarded globally ( Alexander, et al., 2017) . This
level of food waste is problematic because of the rising threats of resource deg-
radation and climate change.

An incr easing number of research papers relat ing to food wast e rev eals that “food
overproduction” and “food sur plus” are pr imary factor s in food waste generat ion.
This is a growing problem globally and in econom ically developed countr ies. ( Hall,
et al., 2009) (Hic, et al., 2016)

Only a few studies have explored and theorized for which reasons overproduct ion,
surplus and waste exists and how they int eract with real - wor ld contexts, and what
under lying system settings ar e driving these problems. One study by Kuokkanen
(Kuokkanen, et al., 2017) is an except ion. It explored t he relat ions between agri-
cultural policies and the underlying systems locking food chains int o unsustaina-
ble pr oduct ions .

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Addressing the pervasive issue of food wastage necessitates a comprehensive

and mult idisciplinary approach that considers the interplay of various factors, in-
cluding overproduct ion, surplus, and syst emic dynam ics. By unravelling the com-
plexit ies of these issues and implementing sustainable solut ions, it is possible to
strive toward a mor e equitable, resource -efficient, and environmentally friendly
global food system.

In summary, overpr oduction is a significant cause of underut ilization of resources.

Due to the cost effectiveness of mass producing, a lot of manufacturing and pr o-
duction companies are indifferent to the possible overpr oduction or waste that
they may cr eate. This is apparent especially in t he clothing industry. It is difficult
to develop a suitable local IT solution, since the production and manufact uring
part of the supply chain is a complicated and complex endeavour to navigat e in.
Furthermore, to pr ovide a comprehensive solution taking the interests of every
stakeholder in clot hing wast e int o account would need an IT solution that is out
of scope. Electronic waste is also a big issue as described and is growing quit e
big. Every year, functioning and capable electronic and electrical devices are
thrown out , due to more advanced products and newer featur es being desirable.
On top of that, a lack of recycling only makes us use more of Earth’s resources
to produce devices. Though, a possible and efficient solution for electronic wast e
would need to tackle the ov eruse and inter action with these products. This is both
challenging and not direct ly related to IT . Furthermore, overpr oduct ion of food is
more pressing, since it negat ively impacts the environment and puts a strain on
our societal and developmental goals such a s world food security and eliminat ion
of hunger. This area is suitable for further explor ation within this project focus
and scope, because it is a global problem, yet able to be partly fixed on a more
local scale in Denm ark with an IT solution.

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2 FOOD AS AN UNDERUTILIZED RESOURCE

As previously addressed, the re exists are surplus of resources subsequently be-
coming subject to wastage and degradat ion and theref ore becoming an unused
resource. One of the biggest and seemingly most important in this catego ry is
food, since it is necessary for human survival. Even though there is pr oduced
enough food to satisfy 1.5 times the global population, it is unevenly distributed
and wasted in huge amounts because of our current system f or food in terms of
both production and consumpt ion (Thin ink, 2022) .

Food is wasted, lost or wrongly distribut ed in vast amounts causing 828 million
people to go hungry on a global scale. This statistic is heavily skewed towar ds
Asia and Afr ica. Furt hermore, food security, which is the “ measure of an individ-
ual’s ability to access food that is nutr itious and sufficient in quant ity ” (Fahy,
2021) is an issue for nearly 1/ 3 of the global populat ion accor ding to WFP (World
Food Program) in 2022. Food waste is a big part of this issue, since food is over-
produced and under utilized in certain ar eas of the world , which results in 30-80
percent of food it ems being wasted globally (Alexander, et al., 2017) . As t he need
for food increases with the growing wor ld populat ion this issue only becomes more
pressing in time (FAO, 2006) (WFP, 2023) .

Food waste can be divided into two major categories: loss and waste (Harvard
School of Public Health, 2018) . Currently there is not an agr eed upon def inition
of food “ loss” versus food “waste” in the global scient ific comm unity . As an exam-
ple, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) descr ibes food loss and wast e
only regarding human consumpt ion, while the FUSION EU (Food Use for Social
Innovat ion by Optimizing Waste Prevention Strategies EU) look at all food – even
the inedible parts. Present paper will focus on fo od loss being edible food that is
discarded or other wise “lost” in the food supply chain before reaching the con-
sumer and food wast e being the edible f ood that is unused dur ing the consumption
phase of the supply chain (Ishangulyyev, et al., 2019) .

2.1 GLOBAL LOSS AND WASTE

Globally approximat ely one -third of the food produced goes to waste. The food
wasted amounts to a stagger ing 1 .3 billion tons of wasted food every year. This
waste is not just a m atter of ineffi ciency, but also significantly contributes to the
environmental cr ises that the wor ld is currently facing. Food wastage is respon-
sible for approximately 10% of the wor ld’s greenhouse gas em ission. Putting food
wastage into perspective, as that of a nation, it would rank as the third - largest
emitter of gases on t he ent ire planet (FAO, 2011) .

Reducing food wastage is a pivotal step to addr ess climate change. By doing so
reducing food wastage could potent ially save upward towards 4 million tons of

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CO2 emissions annually. This would be a tangible and significant contribution

toward mit igat ing the effects of global war ming. But the food wastage ext ends just
environmental concerns, as enormous am ounts of food are squander ed each year,
783 million people worldwide go hungr y. If just one -quarter of the food that is
currently being lost or wasted globally were to be salvaged, it would be possible
to provide substance to over 800 million hungry souls across the globe. Prevent-
ing food wastage is not merely small issue, it is about saving lives or nourishing
the underprivileged ( FAO, 2022) (Hunger notes, 2018) .

To comprehend the gravity of food wastage, consider this analogy: throwing away
a single burger is the equivalent o f squandering a 90 -minute shower. The r e-
sources expended in the growing, the pr ocessing and the transportat ion of that
burger, are substant ial. This is a reminder of the consequences of our act ions
towards the environment and to humanit y (National Retail, 2020) .

In essence, addressing food wastage represents a mult i -facet ed solution. It not

only reduces the greenhouse gases that are emitted every year, but also combats
hunger, promotes sustainability and conserves the precious resources on our
planet. It is an impactful way for everyone, individuals, businesses and so forth
to contribute to a healthier planet and a world that is much fairer (Ozharvest,
2013).

2.2 FOOD LOSS AND WASTE PROCESSES

The food supply chain is a complicated chain of events that could be summarized
into 5 major categor i es. Firstly, the crops are harvested in the primary production ,
which then gets sent to a processing facility that pr oduces edible (or inedible)
food items dur ing the manufactur ing process . These products are then shippe d
across the world to supermarkets, rest aur ants, and many other s in t he distr ibut ion
process. Restaurant s and other establishments where food becomes a form of
service, use the delivered products to serve their customers – where the bipr oduct
becomes wast e. This is therefore a category for itself. The last part in the food
supply chain is the household (eurost at, 2023) . To clar ify, the first 4 of these are
a part of food loss and the last (households) results in food waste, using the
previous definit ion . I llustrated on the following:

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Figure 1: Categories in the Food Supply Chain visualized. Households are used as the con-
s u me r i n t h i s c a s e , w h i c h i s w h y i t i s l i n k e d t o t h e r e s t a u r a n t i n d u s t r y / f o o d s e r v i c e c a t e g o r y .

The non-standardized way of defining food loss and waste becomes an issue
when compar ing data globally, since organizations do not use t he same definit ion.
The pr esent focus will be on the statist ics from the EU, since it acts as a meas-
urement for a large part of the world and is coherent, because of EU standardi-
zation. This will not give a complete pict ure of the global loss and waste concern-
ing food but will mer ely serve as a guide . According to Eurostat data, 11 percent
of all food loss wast e happens in pr imar y product ion, while the manufact uring of
products results in 20 percent , 6 percent during distribution and 9 percent loss in
food services. Food loss is therefore responsible for 46 percent of the whole food
supply chain under utilizat ion of food as a resource, while f ood waste by itself
accounts for 54 percent in the households (eurostat, 2023) .

Although addressing the food loss ear ly in the supply chain is an important matter,
it is also a substant ial undertaking due t o the nature of global supply chains and
large corporations f acilitating the networking of all part icipants in the supply
chain. A solut ion that could decrease the food loss in the production and manu-
facturing phase for example , all else being equal, would have to be a large IT
solution, very much outside the scope of any local IT solution fitting for this pro-
ject.

Furthermore, there is a more prevalent issue to address, namely the food waste
in households which accounts for most of all food loss. A solution for m inimizing
food waste in households would be more effective since for any percentage de-
crease in food loss , the actual absolute quantitat ive decrease would be bigger
with respect to households . In addit ion to this fact, addressing food waste specif-
ically in households would not require as lar ge of an IT solut ion as would be
required for addressing food waste in production or distr ibut ion. Thus, the effect
of addressing household food wast e is more cost-effective considering the scope
of a possible solut ion as well as the effect such a solut ion would have.

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3 IMPACT OF HOUSEHOLD FOOD WASTE

3.1 A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON FOOD WASTE IN DEN-
MARK
In Denmark, we throw away appr oximately 42 kg of food per person every year
that could have been eaten. This includes leftovers like vegetables, bread and
fruits that wer e saved and later forgotten . These food items become food waste.
Among the most com monly leftovers in Danish households, fruits, vegetables,
bread, cakes are represented . On average, this would mean , according to the
Danish M inistry of the Environment , that if every family avoided throwing their
food away, they could save 26 packages of rye bread, 26 packages of toppings
and 156 apples (Milj østyrelsen, 2013) .

Figure 2 (Fødevarestyrelsen, 2015)

The highlighted area in the table above also shows the total food waste contrib-
uted by Danish households. We see that the overall amount of food waste includ-
ing both food waste and inedible food scraps, totals 456,000 tons, and the total
amount of food wast e, which is food waste minus inedible food scraps, amounts
to 247,000 tons of food waste annually or about 42 kg. per individual . The table
also clear ly indicates that Danish households r ank second in terms of food waste.
This is when the manufactur ing sector , which is t he frontrunner with a t otal food
waste of 385,000 tons, along with pr imary product ion, retail and other food retail-
ing, other food distribut ion sectors, the restaurant industry, and other cater ing
services are included in the overall calculat ion. (Milj østyrelsen, 2013)
(Fødevarestyrelsen, 2015)

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3.2 A SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVE ON FOOD WASTE

One of the reasons is inefficient purchase planning, causing unnecessary and
excessive food that could neither be eaten nor preserved for a longer period . It
could be, that for instance if a f amil y decides they want to m ake a dinner which
includes carrots and other vegetables , they then buy a bag of carrots that contains
15 carrots, but for the making of the dish, they only use 7, already her e they have
a leftover of 8 carrot s in t heir refrigerator . Now if this fam ily r arely eats carrots,
there is a good chance that at least some of the remaining carrots will end up in
the trash.

Another important st udy was made by the Department of Envir onmental Engineer-
ing, Technical University of Denmark, which were mad e upon 5 major municipali-
ties in Denmark, in which among other important factors pointed out especially
one of the top r easons for the wast e of food in Danish households. Interest ing ly
the overshadowing reason was the so -called avoidable processed vegetable food
waste. The article r efers to t he principle of discarding food that has not been
prepared or served as a meal, but rather thrown away due to expir ed expirat ion
dates and inadequat e planning. (Edjabou, et al., 2016) .

In a sociological context, food waste is not merely a matter of economics or the

environment. Food waste is also a subject that reflects and inf luences the social
structures and cult ural norms in Danish society. Social f actor s like age, employ-
ment status, and household size have a statistically sign if icant impact on how
people handle food in their homes. Research indicates t hat younger individuals
and those with full-time jobs tend to waste more food. Specif ically, people with
an annual household income of more than 600 , 000 DKK tend to waste more food
compared to household incomes with less than 300,000 DKK. This suggests that
behavioural patterns related to food waste could be a result of social lifestyles ,
income levels and t ime constraints. (Stancu & Lähteenmäki, 2018)

Furthermore, it is t he case t hat people who have complet ed vocational educat ion
waste less food than people who have gr aduated with a master’ degr ee or sim ilar
long-term educations, but people wit h a short to medium length educat i on wast e
generally waste the most food. (Stancu & Lähteenmäki, 2018)

There is a compelling relat ionship between household size and food waste, as
households with children tend to generat e more waste than t hose without. This
can be reflect ed upon family structures and parent ing patterns. This sociological
perspect ive provides us with an opportunity to unders tand how social groups par-
ticipate in or avoid food waste and how social norms can inf luence our behaviours
regarding food. (Stancu & Lähteenmäki, 2018)

Food wast e also has democrat ic implicat ions that are inf luenced by t he ine quality
in access to food and resources. Those who can afford to buy bigger amounts of

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 Un d eru t i liz a ti o n of r es ourc es

food at once often have the means to discard more, while those with limit ed re-
sources ar e compelled to minimize wast e and make the most of what they have.
This creates an inequality in food consumption and r esour ce distribution, and
therefore, in food waste as well. (Stancu & Lähteenmäki, 2018)

Additionally, tackling food waste is a political matter that would require involve-
ment of gover nments, businesses, and civil society. Polit icians face the challenge
of balancing consum ers' freedom to choose and their convenience wit h the im-
perative to decr ease food wast e and safeguard the environment.

In conclusion, food waste is a multifaceted challenge that cannot be fully gr asped

or resolved without consider ing its sociological, professional, and democratic as-
pects. Its impact on society is profound, and addressing it effectively necessitates
collaborat ion across different fields and sectors to f ind sustainable solut ions
(Stancu & Lähteenm äki, 2018) .

3.3 THE BENEFITS OF FOOD WASTE REDUCTION

Reducing food waste leads to several benefits in different ar eas . Minim izing food
waste will lead to extensive progress in delaying resource degradat ions and giv-
ing food security on a global level.

From an environmen tal perspective, the result of reducing food waste is impossi-
ble to estimate. It directly impacts the effort of preserving our natural resources.
Wasting less food direct ly correlates to wasting less resources on cult ivat ion,
processing, and transport ation of said food. The conservat ion of resources is es-
sential for creat ing a world with sustainability as a pr ior ity. Furthermore, decreas-
ing food waste leads to a reduction in the carbon footpr int associated with the
food supply chain . This is the result of reducing the amount of uneaten food being
produced and transported. This effect compounds and r esults in a substantial
decrease in greenhouse gas emissions . Therefore, reducing food waste is a n es-
sential strategy in reducing the environm ental impacts of our food systems.

From an econom ic front, the benefits of reducing f ood waste would result in less
spending. This would impact both households and the food industry. Households
would see a reduct ion of their spending on grocer ies , most ly including items such
as fruit and vegetables but also meat and other ingr edients. The food industry
would see a decrease in how much it needs to produce in order to satisfy a cos-
tumer which would r esult in them needing to spend less on pr oduct ion, but at the
same time the consumer would buy less product so it would equal out for the
industry. This means that econom ically it is mainly the household who would get
an advantage, but as covered earlier the nation and the world benefits from a
reduction in product ion .

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3.4 RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR FOOD

WASTE
Regar ding the quest ion of food waste at home and who is at fault, it is easy t o
point out consumers themselves. After all, t hey are the ones who buy stuff that
they do not utilize, and they have exclusive control over what happens with the
bought products. Logically, if the consumer does not utilize their products, then
they are at fault for lacklustre planning or lack of creativity. There are plenty of
resources from where individuals can obtain recipes and cr eative solutions to
leftovers in the fridge, yet it is still the case that a lot of useable food is thrown
out or not used in time, thus creating unnecessary waste. While this may be a
valid interpretat io n, it is simply too unnuanced of a perspect ive, to blame the end
user of food products since there ar e elements of their purchases that are outside
of their control, or heavily inf lue nced by power s they did not choose.

For instance, why is it that there are only certain sizes of meat products? Usually,
the most common size for ground beef packages is 400g -500g as seen in virtually
all grocery stores in Denmark, which is a fitting amou nt of meat for a family or
group of 3-4 people. Some places may offer custom weight portions, but it is not
common, and some places may offer sizes that are bigger than 500g, such as 1kg
of meat, which does not help with regar ds to minimizing food waste. What prod-
ucts are f itting in size for a single per son or 2 people? Offering smaller packages,
such as 100g-200g of ground beef, would eliminate the need to find alter native
uses for leftover meat to prevent wa ste. The same goes for chicken breasts. Why
not have a package of a single chicken breast inst ead of 2 -3 chicken breasts?
Some veget ables and greens, like carrot s, peppers, beans, and broccoli, are sold
in bunches rather than in custom ized weights . A lot of grocery stores do have
their own weight syst em that you can use, bu t for a lot of products it is not possible
to use the weight. You must buy a bunch of carrots or a whole br occoli head,
when you only need a smaller port ion.

Of course, it is also possible to plan and pr e-emptively ensure t he use of leftovers,

however, that is not the argument being made her e. The point is, that it makes it
more difficult to utilize all food that is purchased, and the fr iction/difficulty asso-
ciate d with planning and eat ing perhaps the same dinner 2 nights in a row, makes
people prone to throw out food. A large part of the pr oblem has to do with the
friction part of planning everything out yourself. By providing t ailored solutions t o
customers, it might become easier for people to effect ively ut ilize their food prod-
ucts. Resolving this would decrease the amount of food thrown out or bought
decreasing the spending a household would need on food.

There are however also certain problems that arise when consider ing the variety
of stakeholders in t he supply chain. The retail stores are business es trying to

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 Un d eru t i liz a ti o n of r es ourc es

generat e prof its, so t hey will not r efrain from selling products if there are custom-
ers willing to buy them. Thus, without any enforced corporate social responsibility,
the businesses ’ goals do not align with the societal goal of m inimizing food waste.
This is also true for companies in other domains of the food supply chain like
distr ibut ion and production. If there are customers willing to buy/use their prod-
ucts and services, there is no financial incentive for them to avoid producing and
selling. A solut ion like ‘Too Good To Go ’ (TooGoodToGo, 2023) effect ively com-
bines the interests of households and grocery stores, since there are financial
benef its for both sides of the transaction. The customers get a lot of products
very cheap, thus they exper ience great value for money. Grocery stores get to
sell products and earn a little bit of money that they otherwise would not have
gotten since they woul d have thrown the products/ leftovers , so they increase their
revenue and minimize food loss . However, while ‘Too Good To Go’ essentially
decreases the food loss in retail and grocery stores , it does not equal a reduction
in food wast e in households. In fact, it may be the case that ‘Too Good To Go’
increases the food waste in households , since the user might receive a lot of
products that they do not need or want to use . The proposed solut ion in this
project would instead revolve around an IT solution that could decrease the food
waste specifically in households, without direct ly interfering with the stakeholders
early in the supply chain to maxim ize food waste reduct ion.

In essence, consum ers do have the ability to plan forward, freeze food, or get
creative with our left overs for us to avoid wasting any food, but the friction and
difficulty for the average person to effectively ut ilize their leftovers increases the
risk that there will be food waste in the end.

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 Un d eru t i liz a ti o n of r es ourc es

PROBLEM STATEMENT
This report started by examining the sharing economy and the solut ions associ-
ated. Quickly it was determined that underlying the sharing economy solutions
were issues such as an underutilizat ion of resources and overproduct ion . These
problems were analyzed further based on the assumpt ion that it was mor e bene-
ficial to solve the r oot issue . The analysis brought an understanding of these
issues that made it clear that they involve multiple problem areas that would re-
quir e solutions outside the scope of this projec t.

Thus, the analysis narrowed down into food waste in households where a signifi-
cantly unaddressed problem was found with regards to the unnecessary diff iculty
associated with ut ilizing available r esources, in t his case f ood, ingredients and
leftovers, in a h ousehold. The problem can be descr ibed by the following state-
ment:

How can an IT application be developed to help simplify

the complexity of meal planning and shopping while also
maximizing the ut ilization of available ingredients in or-
der to minimize food waste in households ?

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 Un d eru t i liz a ti o n of r es ourc es

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
There ar e quite visible problems to observe with regards to the food waste that
occurs in households, for example the friction and difficulty associated with plan-
ning ahead or a lack of custom or differ entiated sizes in grocery stores . It is the
case that the food waste in households can be decreased by removing the friction
and difficulty associated with planning meals. This can be done by providing a
solution that automatically suggests cert ain recipes based on the remaining in-
gredients and leftovers in a household, such that the remaining items can be
utilized more efficiently . Such a solution could be a n application that matches
ingr edients in a household with possible r ecipes and can have filter ing options to
leave out options that are und esirable. Furthermore, this process could be auto-
mated by automatically inserting purchased products into a database associated
with this certain household, so that the database of the application already knows
what products and leftovers are stored in the household, further easing the pro-
cess of planning and utilizing available resources. An IT applicat ion providing
such featur es would be a suitable solution to the probl em of food waste in house-
holds.

For a given IT solution, it should contain the following featur es:

1. The application should be able to match ingredients wit h recipes.

2. The application should allow f ilt ering opt ions to custom ize desired recipes.
3. The process of matching ingredients wit h recipes could be automated by
automatically inserting purchased products in gr ocery stores into the
household database of ingredients.
4. The application should be intuit ive and user friendly, to make the process
of finding recip es easy and seamless for the user.

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