Which factors determine food waste-related behavior? Perspectives from households for local policymaking in developing countries

Figures & data

Table 1. Age of respondents in GMA.

Ranges (years)	Absolute	Relative
Less than 20	77	11,26%
Between 20 and 30	255	37,28%
Between 30 and 40	129	18,86%
Between 40 and 50	105	15,35%
Between 50 and 60	64	9,36%
Between 60 and 70	38	5,56%
More than 70	5	0,73%
NR	11	1,61%
Total	684	1

Table 2. Household income of respondents in GMA (2022–2023 values).

Ranges	Absolute	Relative
Less than $389,88	82	11,99%
Between $389,88 - $835,45	165	24,12%
Between $835,45 - $1392,42	133	19,44%
Between $1392,43 - $2227,87	129	18,86%
More than $2227,87	158	23,10%
NA	17	2,49%
Total	684	1

Table 3. Habitational status of respondents in GMA.

Ranges	Absolute	Relative
House without green area	268	39,2%
House with green area	154	22,5%
Condos	127	18,6%
Apartment building	84	12,3%
Other	39	5,7%
NA	12	1,8%
Total	684	1

Table 4. External conditions of waste management.

Variables	Mean	SD
Own waste sorting (or sorting at source)	1,05	0,68
Local government waste sorting (at an intermediate point)	0,99	0,67
Satisfaction with local government waste management service	3,35	1,19

Table 5. Construct Items considered in the model.

Construct	Item		Mean	SD
Values	V1	Living in a healthy environment (pure air/no pollution) is important to have a good quality of life	4,74	0,78
	V2	I am concerned about climate change	4,5	0,93
	V3	It is important to me that the products I consume do not harm the environment	4,3	0,99
	V4	I feel guilty having to throw away food	4,48	0,98
Perceived Behavioral Control	PBC1	Sorting waste at home requires a lot of work	2,79	1,41
	PBC2	Estimating the amount of food my family consumes is difficult	2,56	1,43
	PBC3	Food waste is a major global problem, so I try to reduce waste in my home	4,41	0,99
	PBC4	When making consumption decisions (in the supermarket, clothing, transport) I consider the environmental impact	3,43	1,28
	PBC5	I usually buy food products that I had not planned	2,85	1,36
	PBC6	Eating healthy foods is part of my daily routine	3,76	1,18
Norms	N1	I am confident that products called ‘green’ or sustainable contribute to improving the quality of the environment	3,87	1,2
	N2	I consider the collection and sorting of waste are important	4,53	0,9
	N3	In most homes, it is normal to waste food since food decomposes quickly	3,18	1,31
	N4	We must all try to improve our practices (recycle, planned purchases, organic waste management) to live in a more sustainable world	4,65	0,83
	N5	My purchasing habits resemble my environmental concerns	3,52	1,2
	N6	I consider myself an environmentally responsible consumer	3,48	1,13

Figure 1. Model specification.

Table 6. Model components and specifications.

	Estimate	Std. err	z-value	P	Std. lv	Std. all
Socioeconomic variables
Income	1				0.645	0.480
Home Type	0.467	0.111	4.194	0.000	0.301	0.305
Age	1.013	0.204	4.960	0.000	0.654	0.469
Green space	0.326	0.066	4.936	0.000	0.210	0.444
Family Size	0.152	0.138	1.103	0.270	0.098	0.065
External aspects
Sorting of waste	1				0.083	0.124
Municipal waste sorting	2.597	1.660	1.565	0.118	0.215	0.325
Satisfaction LG	6.272	4.190	1.497	0.134	0.519	0.467
Location of Municipal treatment facilities	0.114	0.640	0.178	0.859	0.009	0.013
TPB Constructs
Values vs…
V1	1				0.639	0.818
V2	1.120	0.054	20.734	0.000	0.716	0.774
V3	1.128	0.059	19.023	0.000	0.721	0.724
V4	1.001	0.061	16.427	0.000	0.640	0.644
Behavioral Control vs…
PBC3	1				0.716	0.711
PBC4	0.994	0.080	12.363	0.000	0.712	0.562
PBC6	0.943	0.075	12.585	0.000	0.675	0.583
PBC5	0.174	0.084	2.067	0.039	0.125	0.092
Social Norms vs…
N2	1				0.778	0.854
N3	0.287	0.071	4.042	0.000	0.224	0.172
N4	0.937	0.035	27.021	0.000	0.729	0.885
N6	0.798	0.056	14.316	0.000	0.621	0.557
Intention
Values	1				0.948	0.948
Norms	1.249	0.064	19.564	0.000	0.972	0.972
Behavioral Control	1.109	0.068	16.425	0.000	0.939	0.939

Note: Table 6 includes influencing constructs (please see coding in Table 5), as well as the extended model variables including socioeconomic and external aspects regarding the intention to not-to-waste food.

Table 7. Regressions statistic.

	Estimate	Std. err	z-value	p	Std. lv	Std. all
Socioeconomic	0.074	0.063	1.185	0.236	0.048	0.083
External aspects	0.312	0.638	0.488	0.625	0.026	0.044
Intention	0.108	0.043	2.486	0.013	0.065	0.112

Table 8. Final disposal of waste collected by municipalities in Costa Rica.

Destination	Percentages
Sanitary landfill	65,5%
Private company (different disposal or treatment practices)	20,7%
Dumps	13,8%

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [LBP], upon reasonable request.