Estimating urban food waste at the local level: are good practices in food consumption persistent?

Although the recent empirical literature provides a satisfactory range of estimates of food waste at the national and global level, little attention has been devoted to lower units of aggregation. This article tackles the phenomenon of urban food waste (UFW), proposing an analysis of consumer behaviour at the local level. Using institutional data for Italian provinces, over an 11-year time span (2004–2014), we estimate the amounts of UFW and subsequently investigate the extent of persistence and spatial spillovers using the local Moran transition probability matrix. Our results suggest that the good and bad practices in food consumption that determine the levels of UFW are persistent over time. Moreover, they produce a (though limited) spatial spillover, affecting consumption practices in the neighbouring areas. Two province clusters emerge, one in Northern and Central Italy, featuring negative behaviours and the other one in South-Central and Southern Italy, displaying virtuous behaviours. This situation calls for public policies aimed at promoting convergence in the levels of UFW.