Assessing Urban Households’ Intention to Reduce Food Waste
Kelly Wong Kai Seng, Nik Rozana Nik Masdek, Juwaidah Sharifuddin
Department of Agribusiness and Bioresource Economics, Faculty of
Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia
Phuah Kit Teng
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Accountancy, Finance and Business, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College
Wong Wang Li
School of Economics and Management, Xiamen University Malaysia
Lai Kok Song
Health Sciences Division, Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Higher Colleges of Technology
Abstract
The issue of consumers food waste continues to be a challenge in Malaysia. More attention is needed from the public to reduce food waste to protect our environment. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the factors related to urban households’ intention towards sustainable food waste management in Malaysia. Using the purposive sampling method, this study collected data from 200 respondents via online survey. On top of that, this study adopted the factor analysis to analyze the relationship between the factors influencing the intention of households to practice sustainable food waste management. The survey’s descriptive findings indicated that respondents have a high intent to practice sustainable food waste management. The majority of the respondents claimed that it could reduce environmental harm and reduce their food expenses. Based on the factor analysis, determinants related to the households’ intention of practicing sustainable food waste management are attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and food waste reduction intention. The Chi-square test showed three important strata groups related to the households’ intended to practice sustainable food waste management, i.e. education background, occupation, and income level. Hence, the government should organize more campaigns to influence society to participate in sustainable food waste management activities. Since respondents have a higher perceived behavioral control to practice sustainable food waste management, local authorities should provide more food waste management information and facilities to encourage households to engage in sustainable food waste management campaign.
Keywords: Food waste, Intention, Awareness, Knowledge, Sustainable
