A peaceful fight against food waste in Amsterdam

Abstract

Food waste is a global problem that has a significant impact on the environment and society. Nevertheless, the Dutch government lacks a clear strategy to reduce food waste. The city of Amsterdam also lacks such a strategy. Therefore, various social innovation initiatives are actively preventing food waste. These initiatives emerge from local collaboration and address a social problem in society that existing institutions have failed to tackle themselves. These initiatives call themselves “signaleringskeukens" or food waste prevention initiatives. As there is a lack of knowledge on the impact and governance of food waste prevention initiatives, this thesis aims to answer the following research question: What is the impact of food waste prevention initiatives in Amsterdam? In doing so, it will look at the governance of food waste prevention initiatives, their environmental and socio-economic impact, and drivers and barriers that influence this impact. This thesis shows that it is difficult for food waste prevention initiatives to realize an impact. They are confronted with barriers in almost every aspect of their activities. Despite collecting a significant amount of food waste, food waste prevention initiatives are still merely scratching the surface compared to Amsterdam's total amount of food waste. The initiatives are aware of this and primarily focus on raising awareness of food waste and food waste prevention. Thereby, the initiatives reach thousands of people but fail to reach politicians, councilors, and food businesses. Consequently, food waste prevention initiatives have not yet realized system innovation and transformative change. Nonetheless, they show great potential for changing the food system as long as they establish strong networks.