Second Possibility - The Psychology Behind Food Waste Pt. I

Why do people waste food?

It is within everybody's capabilities to control the amount of food they order, buy or take on their plates. What stops them from actually taking more and wasting the excess? What do they have to gain from this when they are actually losing out through the process? Losing out on time, money and manpower. Not to mention the farther effects that they have on the world.

First Possibility - Food Waste In Restaurants

When we think of food waste, our immediate thoughts race towards restaurants and food businesses. Producing huge amounts of food everyday - the general finger would probably point towards these institutions being the main culprits in the problem of food waste. Surely the masses pouring into these gastronomical destinations don't finish off everything?

Further Narrowing and Possibilities

Now that I had a generic look at food waste globally and in India, I had to narrow down my scope even more. For this, I took four possibilities -

• Food waste in restaurants and food businesses - what is done with all the extra/leftover food?
• Food waste in uncalculated, or unexpected sources (the airline industry, for example) and their waste aggregation and immediate use

Initial Mind Maps

These are the mind maps used for organization of data and intelligence related to food waste. Initially, I started off with a general overview of food waste over the globe, with no constraints in mind.

Initial Problem Brief

Food waste is an extremely critical problem which is gradually becoming of more gravity with passing time. It might not seem as grave as other pressing problems, such as global warming or the Pacific Garbage Patch, however it is connected to almost every problem being faced right now, as is the case with most problems.