Выбрасывание продуктов и практики по «спасению еды» в России (микроуровень анализа)

Экономическая социология. 2022. Т. 23. № 1. С. 11–38.

Shabanova M. A.

About one-third of all food produced in the world is thrown away. The higher the development level of the country, the more contribution to this practice is made by the microlevel actors – consumers (households). Food waste is a serious environmental, economic, social and ethical issue and a search for effective ways to alleviate this issue is in conformity with sustainable development goals. The problem is of a systemic nature and its theoretical conceptualization follows this path. However, some aspects of this problem have not been equally examined, one of its least studied aspects being the relationship between (not) throwing food away, on one hand, and actual food rescue practices implemented by the consumers, on the other. Capturing this relationship is important for understanding both the nature of the food waste phenomenon and a comparative role of various recovery practices, including the new ones (P2P sharing) as well as the civil society potential in alleviating the waste issue.

Based on a representative survey (N=2,000 respondents, November 2020), the levels and factors of Russians’ engagement in groups with different attitudes toward throwing food away have been identified (“not throwing away food”, “throwing away edible food”, “throwing away spoiled food”). We used regression analysis to estimate the relationship between the probability of being included in any of these groups and the involvement in various food rescue practices (feeding animals & food waste composting, extending the shelf life of products, donating unneeded food to others, including P2P food sharing). It has been shown that consumers using social channels of food rescue (both practicing food sharing and not), ceteris paribus, would be less likely to throw away edible food and more likely to throw away spoiled food (at least during the pandemic, although probably this is not so much a question of the pandemic). Conclusions are made about the importance of combining social rescue practices with other types food rescue and about the potential of civil society in mitigating the issue.

Keywords: гражданское общество, civil society, устойчивое развитие, этичное потребление, ethical consumption, food waste, sustainable development, waste issue, мусорная проблема, пищевые отходы, фудшеринг, food rescue practices, food sharing, практики «спасения еды»

Publication based on the results of: The Monitoring of the state of civil society (Wave 17) (2022)