COMBINE is a research project kicked off in June 2024 and will last for 30 months, running until November 2026. The project adress consumer food waste across schools, workplace canteens, and homes in France, Finland, Italy, and Portugal. The goal is simple: to evaluate and implement effective intervention combinations that foster positive behavioural changes and reduce food waste.
COMBINE addresses the key challenges identified within past projects like the European Consumer Food Waste Forum to reduce consumer food waste. It aims to combine interventions targeted to specific consumer groups in schools and workplace canteens, and homes, to resonate with consumers’ diverse environments and lifestyles and support the adoption of positive behavioural changes. To this aim, Combine established a collaborative ecosystem by working with a variety of stakeholders, including NGOs, private companies, municipalities, universities, and schools.
Core activities
The activities of the project regard:
- Use consumer segmentation to design interventions targeted to the needs of specific consumer groups.
- Combine different types of interventions to address the diverse causes of consumer food waste (acting upon consumers’ motivations, opportunities and abilities).
- Combine interventions across different settings (school canteens, corporate restaurants and homes) to strengthen the adoption of food savings habits.
- Evaluate potential synergies between interventions.
Major outputs and benefits:
- Achieve significant food waste reductions: Implement a targeted action plan
with an ambitious goal of reducing food waste by 30% or more, setting a strong
example for others to follow. - Maximise positive impacts: Gain insights into the environmental, social, and
economic benefits of different food waste actions. - Leverage expert guidance for success: Access specialised support from the
COMBINE project, ensuring your actions are backed by the latest knowledge and
best practices. - Connect and collaborate across borders: Join a network of organisations
across the EU, sharing experiences and learning through webinars and in-person
exchanges in the platform for project participants
Meet the COMBINE team and find out more about the project activities in this short video series.
COMBINE action plan
Results
COMBINE’s tools and activities for each intervention site are available Open Access on Zenodo. Here, you can find guides for how the interventions methods were carried out:
- Workplace methods: https://zenodo.org/records/23055972
- Guide for Observation at Workplaces – Post-Intervention
- Guide for Observation at Workplaces – Pre-Intervention
- Interview Guide for Workplaces – Post-Intervention
- Interview Guide for Workplaces – Pre-Intervention
- Plate Waste Measurement for Canteens
- Plate Waste Measurement
- Survey for Workplaces – Post-Intervention
- Survey for Workplaces – Pre-Intervention
- School methods:https://zenodo.org/records/23056966
- Guide for Observation at Schools – Post-Intervention
- Guide for Observation at Schools – Pre-Intervention
- Interview Guide for Schools – Post-Intervention
- Interview Guide for Schools – Pre-Intervention
- Plate Waste Measurement for Canteens
- Plate Waste Measurement Guide for Canteens
- Survey for Schools – Post-Intervention
- Survey for Schools – Pre-Intervention
- Household methods:https://zenodo.org/records/23055998
- Food Waste Diary for Households
- Food Waste Measurement Methodology
- Interview Guide for Households – Post-Intervention
- Interview Guide for Households – Pre-Intervention
COMBINE partners
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Single Market Programme Food Chain under grant agreement N° 101158394.