Supermarket Food Waste
Overview
As part of the Map the System challenge at the University of Waterloo, my team and I were challenged to map out an important issue. My team and I set out to understand the role and influence of Ontario’s supermarkets in the rising problem of food waste.
Role
Researcher
Responsibilities
Writer
Illustrator
Problem
60% of Ontario's food waste ends up in landfills, and 47% of Canada's food waste is made by consumers.
This issue can be traced back to supermarkets as they directly influence consumers’ food disposal habits.
Research
To get an accurate understanding of the problem around supermarket food waste, we conducted both primary and secondary research. For our primary research, We held interviews with local managers from both chain and independent supermarkets. Additionally, we interviewed vendors at our local farmer's market. For our secondary research, we used research papers and reliable data sources.
Challenges
I found it challenging to conduct interviews with the managers of larger chain supermarkets. Though they were very willing to set up an interview, there were several crucial questions that they were not at liberty to answer. It risked tainting our research with personal assumptions to fill in those knowledge gaps, including assumptions around the reason why they would not answer certain questions. To overcome this setback, I did further research specifically on the gaps in our interviews and did not claim any findings that were not supported with actual evidence.
Takeaways
This project really helped me refine my research skills. It was a great opportunity that allowed me to focus on understanding an issue without developing a viable solution. I learned how to better conduct interviews tailored toward getting the answers that are needed as opposed to the responses that are wanted.
Our findings earned us a position as a finalists in the Map the System Challenge at the University of Waterloo.
