Beyond the Throwaway Society: Ordinary Domestic Practice and a Sociological Approach to Household Food Waste

• Published in: Sociology (Oxford) Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 41 - 56
• Main Author: Evans, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.02.2012; Sage Publications; Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Consumption; Cooking; Economic behaviour. Consumption; Economic sociology; Environmental problems; Ethnography; Everyday Life; Family; Family life; Food; Food consumption; Food movements; Food security; Food waste; Food wastes; General studies; Homes; Households; Human ecology and demography; Material Culture; Polities; Practice; Social life & customs; Sociology; Sociology of economy and development; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Studies; Waste; Waste disposal; United Kingdom > UK; social practice; waste; consumption; material culture; food; Household; Meal; Food Policy; Wastes; Food consumption; Food

This article offers a sociological analysis of household food waste and its starting point is a critique of perspectives in which volumes of waste generation are used to infer the presence of a throwaway society. Drawing on broadly ethnographic examples, the analysis illustrates some of the ways in...