The Wicked Problem of Packaging and Consumers: Innovative Approaches for Sustainability Research

This chapter presents the methodology and consumer insights from a highly impactful research and design project, conducted over two years by the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre and RMIT University. The project is designed to inform the Australian packaging industry in developing products and services that will reduce food waste. Food waste in Australia is a wicked problem, replete with paradoxes: people hate plastic but plastic saves food. The deep insights gained from the project have already resulted in significant changes to industry practices and new guidelines for packaging design. The methodology developed especially for this project is based on design thinking and ethnographic approaches, combined with quantifiable validation procedures. The study ensures industry actors have the right tools to make packaging decisions that reduce food waste