Abstract:

This study examines how organisational systems, regulatory logics, and everyday care practices interact to produce and normalise food waste in aged residential care (ARC) identifying leverage points for system-level change. A qualitative study was conducted across 14 ARC facilities in Aotearoa New Zealand, including 18 semi-structured interviews with kitchen and facility managers and 14 focus groups with 75 frontline staff. Analysis was iterative and interpretive, combining the Capability Opportunity Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) framework to identify behavioural conditions shaping waste with Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to explain how organisational rules and divisions of labour stabilised these conditions. We identified two contradictions which sustained routine waste: (1) relational care versus procedural compliance, and (2) responsibility versus control, where frontline staff held knowledge of residents’ needs but lacked authority to act. Reducing food waste requires clearer authority pathways, legitimised decision-making, cross-departmental learning loops, and performance measures that integrate sustainability into care quality.

Please choose your submission type: Full Paper

Primary Track: Sustainable and Responsible Business

Keywords: interviews;focus groups

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Ms. Elena Piere