Abstract
One effort to encourage households to reduce their waste is based on educational programs. However the educational-program evaluation is nascent and there is a lack of and poor quality of proposals. This field study contributes to the filling of this literature gap. Forty-one volunteer families took part in a quasi-experimental study with two nonrandomized groups, using a pretest and posttest design. During a full year, wastes were weighed weekly (1,432 samples) and a workshop aimed at the minimizing of food-waste production behavior, home technology, and composting was offered. Significance differences (95%) were measured when a paired Student's t-test and a Chi square test were used. Four main conclusions were made. (1) The average production of food wastes in Mexico was similar to other developed countries, (2) the food-waste reduction and the workshop were not independent, (3) the workshop increased environmental awareness and capacity building, and (4) food-waste weighing was a feasible and robust tool to measure the impact of the workshop.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1772-1783 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Life Science Journal |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 3 |
State | Published - Jul 2013 |
Keywords
- Educational evaluation
- Environmental education
- Food waste
- Household waste
- Leftovers
- Waste minimization