How Food Becomes Waste: Students as “Carriers of Practice” in the UC Davis Dining Commons

Abstract

Understanding how food becomes waste is of critical importance in minimizing food waste. This article looks beyond attitudes and individual responsibility and focuses on the social practices that generate food waste. We use social practice theory to explore the transition of food to waste at the consumer level in the All-You-Care-to-Eat institutional setting of the UC Davis dining commons. Despite the growing body of research using social practice theory to understand household food waste, this approach has not been applied to educational institutions where there is great interest, need, and opportunity to reduce food waste.

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