Reuse and reduce food waste — Composting — ActGreen
In order to achieve our goal, which is the reuse and reduce of food waste, we thought that it would be really helpful and interesting to see what the Athenian citizens think about composting and generally what is their opinion about our cause. For that reason we carried out two interviews, the first course of questions had to do with what the Athenians know about the food waste and the composting, and the second course had to do with possible solutions for people to start caring more about the food waste.
Here is an example from one of the interviews we had at the first stage of our process :
Name : Athina Kakoliri
Age : 34
Nationality : Greek
- What do you already know about the food waste?
I know that an enormous amount of food is thrown in the garbage daily.
- So, what are you doing about your food waste?
I try to consume all the food I cook and if there is some left I give it to my cats.
- How do you feel about your own food waste?
Sad and ashamed because there are people that die from hunger.
- Do you know any way to limit food waste?
To stop eating. I think it’s impossible.
- Have you heard about compost?
I heard one time from a friend.
- How you feel about composting your food waste?
It would be nice, but I think I wouldn’t be able to keep on doing it ,because it demands good organize and time witch I don’t have.
Most of the answers we got from our itnerviews were pretty similar to each other. Most of the Athenians new and cared about the problem of food waste, but didn’t really know any way to reduse it or reuse it. In fact a few knew about the composting process and none of them were composting. We realized that people feel bad about their food waste and they would like to help in order to solve or at least make this problem better, but none of them wanted to get out of their comfort zone and adopt a healthier life style by composting.
So, after our first round of interviews we came to the conclusion that we should find some fresh and interesting ideas to make the Athenian citizens more sensitive about our cause. For that reason we came up with some suggestions to make composting more popular and easy entranced to the people of Athens and we committed a second round of interviews to see what people think about that.
Here is another example :
Eleftheria, 22 y.o.
How does it sound to you the idea of attending a workshop about composting and learning easy ways to use it in your everyday life?
-It sounds really interesting, because it would make me and also many people more sensitive and informed about this nice cause.
Would you like to go to a workshop like this?
-It wouldn’t be my priority,but why not.
Do you think that If one of your favorite influencers were supporting the idea of composting ,would that make you care more about this cause?
-No, there is no influencer that I really admire so It wouldn’t make any difference to me, but I think that is a good idea in general.
If there was a place in the center of Athens where people could bring their food waste for composting, would you do it?
-I don’t believe that could work, it sounds nice theoretically, but practically I wouldn’t do it.
Would you go to a theme festival about raising awareness for composting and also raising awareness about the amount of food that goes to waste daily?
- Definitely yes !
The results from our second course of interviews were better and gave us a good feedback about what we, as a team, should do to make, even a little better, the problem of food waste. We learned that people would attend, if that was possible, workshops about composting and that they are positive in composting, if there was a place in the center of Athens where they could bring their food waste. We realized that not every citizen of Athens would support our goal, but we saw that a few are willing to put composting in their lives, if this wouldn’t bring trouble to them. That’s what makes us happy! We trully believe that with small steps at some point we will make a difference in this world and we will make people to see that they should be more sensitive about their food waste and help this planet and their own lives get better by caring!
Panteion University-Social Issues, Social Innovation and Corporate Responsibility Course initiated by Betty Tsakarestou
Betty Tsakarestou maria zioga Christina Bolanou diana ts
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