A study on attitudes and behaviors towards food waste and environmental protection awareness

The impacts of human activities on nature are multidimensional, complex, and have long-term consequences. Various human activities such as industrialization, urbanization, agricultural production, and energy consumption have led to severe and often irreversible damage to the environment. Although it may not be possible to completely reverse this destruction, it is still possible to reduce its effects and establish a more balanced relationship with nature. Therefore, increasing individual sensitivity, raising public awareness, and implementing effective environmental policies are of great importance. The precautions taken today will directly affect the environmental balance of tomorrow.Climate change is one of the most prominent and dangerous consequences of the damage caused by humanity to nature. Worldwide, climate change, the rapid consumption of natural resources, and environmental degradation necessitate the reshaping of consumption habits. In this context, the concept of sustainable and responsible consumption emerges as an increasingly important approach, considering not only the environment but also economic and social dimensions.In the 12th goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015, "Responsible Production and Consumption" is addressed as a specific area. Sustainable consumption aims to protect the rights of future generations to live, and the main way to achieve this goal is through conscious choices made by individuals.Parallel to the continuous increase in the world population, the demand for food and nutritional resources is also rising. While the food industry focuses on making healthy and nutritious food accessible to everyone and meets the desired demand, the problem of food waste has emerged. Despite having sufficient food production to feed the global population, the presence of malnutrition in some regions highlights the importance of food waste and waste management.Ensuring food security requires identifying the causes of food loss and waste during production and consumption stages. In this study, the provinces of Diyarbakır, Tunceli, and Elazığ were selected as the application areas. For the designated study area, surveys were conducted to determine consumers' awareness of food waste and its effects, their reasons for wasting food, the product groups in which they waste the most, their level of knowledge about climate change, and the degree of relationship between climate change and food waste. A total of 215 surveys were conducted, including 56 in Elazığ, 76 in Tunceli, and 83 in Diyarbakır. Frequency and percentage values of the collected data were analyzed. According to the findings, it was concluded that as the level of positive attitudes and behaviors toward reducing food waste increases, environmental awareness also increases correspondingly.