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Only 31.7% of household food waste is “preventable”.
Food waste: What does the new research show and what does it mean for the collection systems?
A new scientific study by Sjölund et al. (Scientific Reports, 2026) followed 41 Swedish households over almost 10,000 days using a digital system that automatically weighed and photographed food waste every time it was thrown away. It provides an unusually detailed picture of how much of household food waste can in fact be prevented, and what impact this has on climate and resource use.
How much food waste can we actually reduce?
The researchers divide food waste into:
- Avoidable/Preventable: food that could reasonably have been eaten
- Possibly avoidable: for example potato peelings and certain edible parts that are often cut away
- Unavoidable: coffee grounds, banana skins, eggshells, bones, cores and so on
The results show that:
- 24.4% was avoidable
- 7.3% was possibly avoidable
- in total, around 31.7% of household food waste is realistically preventable
This corresponds to roughly 16 kg per person per year, with a climate impact of around 19 kg CO₂e per person per year and an estimated food cost of about €66 per person per year. The article concludes that the climate and economic gains from halving household food waste in Sweden are real, but relatively limited. Larger effects are considered achievable through changes in dietary patterns rather than solely through reduced food waste in the home.
At the same time, food waste is nutrient-rich, particularly the “possibly avoidable” fraction, which often consists of peels and plant parts with high levels of dietary fibre, folate, vitamin C and iron. If these are not eaten, it is therefore important that they are at least recovered in a circular system, for example through anaerobic digestion into biogas and biofertiliser.
Of all food waste, 24.4% is clearly avoidable, while 7.3% is “possibly avoidable” (peelings, edible parts, etc.).
The rest consists of things like coffee grounds, banana skins and eggshells, which are difficult or impossible to avoid.
Swedish statistics: households remain central
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s latest compilations show that households account for a large share of Sweden’s food waste. Households generate around 60 kg of solid food waste per person per year, of which about 16 kg is estimated to be food waste in the sense of edible food that is unnecessarily thrown away. On top of this comes food and drink poured down the drain, mainly coffee, tea and dairy products.
The total amount of food waste at retail and consumer level has not decreased significantly in recent years, despite targets and information campaigns. This means that the need for robust systems for the collection and treatment of food waste remains, even if waste-prevention measures are scaled up.
Large quantities of peels, coffee grounds, tea, bones, pips, etc.
Even with successful waste‑reduction efforts, efficient collection of food waste is still needed.
Here, the infrastructure becomes crucial – not just behaviour.
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68% of food waste is unavoidable – and will always exist
What does this mean for how we manage food waste in the city?
The research and statistics point to three key insights:
A large share of food waste will always remain
Even with ambitious reductions in food waste, unavoidable fractions such as peels, coffee grounds, bones and cores will continue to arise. Collection systems therefore need to be sized and designed for a long‑term flow of organic waste.
The quality of collected food waste is crucial for circularity
For food waste to become high-quality biogas and biofertiliser, a high collection rate, low contamination and functioning logistics in densely built areas are required. Separate collection of a clean food waste fraction is a precondition for the climate and resource scenarios used in research to be realised in practice.
System solutions need to complement behaviour‑change efforts
Information, labelling and campaigns are important for reducing food waste, but they need to be supported by infrastructure that makes it easy to sort correctly in everyday life. The collection systems are one part of this context.
EU’s impact
The EU has been working for several years to reduce food waste along the entire food supply chain and has now agreed on binding targets for 2030. Under the revised Waste Framework Directive, Member States must reduce food waste by at least 10 per cent in food processing and production, and by 30 per cent per capita in retail, restaurants, catering and households compared with the 2021–2023 average. These targets build on the EU’s objective to halve food waste at retail and consumer level under Agenda 2030 and place prevention, reuse and recycling of food high in the waste hierarchy.
In practice, this means that all actors – from municipalities and property owners to technology providers for food waste collection – are given a clearer role in both reducing the amount of unnecessary food waste and ensuring that unavoidable food waste is managed in a way that supports biogas production and circular nutrient flows.
Envac’s role as infrastructure in a circular system
The new study on household food waste adds nuance to our understanding of how much household food waste actually contributes to climate impact and costs in Sweden, while the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s statistics clearly show that levels of food waste remain high and relatively stable.
For Envac, this means that the focus should not only be on “less waste”, but also on better management of the food waste that inevitably arises. Underground vacuum waste collection systems for food waste can, in objective terms, be described as an important infrastructure component within a broader transition:
- They provide a permanent and integrated solution for the collection of food waste even as waste is reduced, since unavoidable fractions will always remain.
- They can help achieve high sorting rates and cleaner food waste fractions, which facilitates anaerobic digestion and the return of nutrients to agriculture.
- They reduce the need for heavy collection vehicles within residential areas, with positive effects on traffic, noise and working environment.
- They can generate data on flows and quantities that can be used to monitor and further develop local food waste and waste‑management strategies.
Research shows that reducing food waste in households is an important part of a sustainable food system, but also that it is not the whole solution. Envac’s systems are designed to handle the share of food waste that inevitably arises and thereby support municipalities, property owners and residents in the transition towards more circular and resource‑efficient cities.
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