Assessing the impact of policy instruments on food waste reduction in the EU

Abstract: The issue of food waste and loss is becoming a critical issue all around the globe, resulting in an unsustainable food system. Therefore, food waste reduction is essential to provide food security and combat environmental impacts that deprive agricultural production in the upcoming decades. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals need to be reached by 2030, especially the goals 2 (end hunger) and 12 (ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns) as well as the targets set by the EU. Thus, this research aims to assess the impact of three policy instruments: the incineration tax, the landfill tax and the pay-as-you-throw approach to seek out the most efficient one among these three as well as find loopholes to successfully find a strategy that reaches sustainable development and satisfy the demand of the growing population without depriving the needs of future generations. Identifying the efficiency of the three market-based instruments will contribute to fulfil the EU requirements and targets. A conceptual framework was chosen to explain the relationships between the different factors that have an influence on the policy instruments and thus on the dependent variable “Food waste”. The empirical method was a multiple regression model, giving the opportunity to show the significance of several regressors. In the findings, the level of income among the EU member countries was proved to have an insignificant effect on the amount of food waste. Additionally, the findings for the policy instruments showed that the incineration tax and the landfill tax are slightly increasing the quantity of food waste, while the findings for the pay-as-you-throw approach are revealing both and increasing as well as a decreasing effect on the amount of food waste among countries in the EU. The results for the control variables vary depending on the policy and country but the variable “Waste management” has proven to have a significant influence on the reduction of food waste in the EU. There is great need for an improve of data, unified definitions as well as collaboration among stakeholder on national and international level to build up a sustainable food system that is able to cope with the environmental, social and economic challenges.