Title: Individualised community refuse audits for food waste reduction and management: a systematic review

Authors: Lai Ti Gew; Li Lin Lein; Mohamed Kheireddine Aroua

Addresses: Department of Biological Sciences, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia; Sunway Materials Smart Science and Engineering (SMS2E) Research Cluster, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia ' Department of Biological Sciences, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia; Sunway Materials Smart Science and Engineering (SMS2E) Research Cluster, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia ' Sunway Materials Smart Science and Engineering (SMS2E) Research Cluster, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia; Centre for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization (CCDCU), School of Engineering and Technology, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia; Department of Engineering, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK

Abstract: Refuse audits or also known as waste audits are essential to achieve waste reduction goals and policy implementation. However, the main component for intervention regarding waste issue is the availability of reliable data in waste production and composition. While the amount of waste has increased tremendously, huge gaps involving household waste data and methodologies have yet to be solved. In this review, we summarise 31 published literatures that examined the rate of generation of household waste from across the world. By understanding the amount and composition of waste generated by individualised community, valuable information can be recorded to develop tailor-made waste management solutions at the community level. Results showed that the challenges are small sample sizes, imbalance demographic, sampling biases, time and energy consuming for participants. Future studies may consider a consistent quantification technique, thus, the waste information collected can be compared between dissimilar sources.

Keywords: waste audit; waste management; household waste; residential waste; disposal of refuse.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2026.151366

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2026 Vol.39 No.1, pp.39 - 64

Received: 04 May 2023
Accepted: 23 Jul 2024
Published online: 26 Jan 2026 *

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