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The aim of this study was to present the national-level quantification of household food waste in Greece for 2021, in alignment with the legal framework of the European Union (EU) for measuring and reporting food waste. An online diary survey was conducted in spring 2021, utilizing pre-tested semi-structured food waste logs. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyze food waste levels and generalized estimating equations (GEE) were performed to assess the influence of diary duration on food waste levels. The final representative sample consisted of 1,133 households. At the national level, the average per-capita annual total food waste generation rate was 86.5 ± 64.5 kg. The predominant share of food waste (47 %) was inedible plant-derived parts, reflecting underlying consumption patterns, whereas 40 % was once-edible food parts. Particularly, vegetables, fruits, and bakery products were the most discarded once-edible food items. Moreover, no statistically significant difference was found between food waste levels across the diary entries, with reporting periods varying from one day to one week. This study marks the first implementation of the EU legislation for household food waste measurement and reporting in Greece. Moreover, the study results indicate that the utilization of diaries with shorter reporting periods than one week, with a sufficiently large sample, may be an appropriate method for measuring nationwide levels, enhancing compliance while mitigating social desirability bias and reducing attrition. Future research should delve into the behaviors driving food waste, motives for prevention in different geographic and cultural contexts, and optimal diary reporting durations., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Food waste is a stream that becomes increasingly important in terms of its prevention potential. There is a large number of behaviours that can be associated with food waste generation and the efforts towards food waste prevention. A questionnaire study was carried in order to study consumer behaviour related to food provision and wastage in Greece. Proper practices of the respondents that can prevent the generation of food waste were investigated using nine behavioural scales, which were defined on the basis of similar studies in other countries. A structured questionnaire was utilised in order to test those behaviours against the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents. The results of the study indicate that in terms of inferential statistical analysis, among the numerous variables examined, those that enhance food waste prevention are the involvement of the respondent in cooking, the annoyance towards food waste generation and the education level., (© The Author(s) 2016.)

Waste management planning requires reliable data regarding waste generation, affecting factors on waste generation and forecasts of waste quantities based on facts. In order to decrease the environmental impacts of waste management the choice of prevention plan as well as the treatment method must be based on the features of the waste that are produced in a specific area. Factors such as culture, economic development, climate, and energy sources have an impact on waste composition; composition influences the need of collecting waste more or less frequently of waste collection and disposition. The research question was to discover the main barriers concerning the compositional analysis in Insular Communities under warm climate conditions and the findings from this study enabled the main contents of a waste management plan to be established. These included advice to residents on waste minimisation, liaison with stakeholders and the expansion of kerbside recycling schemes., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Food waste is a waste stream with serious economic, environmental and social implications. The emphasis of the reported research is on the food waste generated by households in Greece. A structured questionnaire was utilised in order to identify the attitudes of the respondents and investigate the prevalence of certain behavioural good practices that can prevent the generation of food waste. The research, to our knowledge the first of its kind in Greece, took place in February and March 2012. Face-to-face interviews were employed, resulting to a total of 231 consumers fully completing the questionnaire. Results indicate that, based on self-reported behaviour, people in Greece have positive attitudes towards food waste prevention and that their habits are close to the good practices suggested in the literature for reducing food waste. For instance, most respondents do plan their food shopping in a multitude of ways and are very careful in their purchases of fresh food supplies. However, about 40% misunderstand the meaning of food date labels. The positive findings are strongly influenced by the severe recession experienced in the country, which makes consumers more conscious of their spending. Results may serve as a yardstick to further promote and establish food waste prevention behaviour at the household level on an environmental and social awareness basis that may outlast the economic crisis.

In a bid to identify suitable microbial indicators of compost stability, the process evolution during windrow composting of poultry manure (PM), green waste (GW) and biowaste was studied. Treatments were monitored with regard to abiotic factors, respiration activity (determined using the SOUR test) and functional microflora. The composting process went through typical changes in temperature, moisture content and microbial properties, despite the inherent feedstock differences. Nitrobacter and pathogen indicators varied as a monotonous function of processing time. Some microbial groups have shown a potential to serve as fingerprints of the different process stages, but still they should be examined in context with respirometric tests and abiotic parameters. Respiration activity reflected well the process stage, verifying the value of respirometric tests to access compost stability. SOUR values below 1 mg O(2)/g VS/h were achieved for the PM and the GW compost.

Windrow composting of source-separated biowaste was studied in a pilot plant in Crete, with regard to abiotic factors, gas concentration in the pile and succession of functional microbial groups. The pH, C/N ratio and VS content, as well as the O(2) and CO(2) concentration, correlated well with composting time, indicating typical composting behaviour. Most of the microbial groups examined exhibited their highest counts towards the end of the thermophilic phase, with declining trends thereafter. The population of total mesophilic and thermophilic bacteria increased during the mild thermophilic phase and followed the temperature decline thereafter. Results on these microbial groups and fungi indicate that the timing of the thermophilic stage in the composting process, in addition to the peak temperature and duration of the stage, affects the microbial succession. Escherichia coli were detected for over 2 months of processing, in spite of the high temperatures achieved; only after about 3 months of composting did its population decline below the detection limit.