A new study shows that short-term rental accommodations across the United States could waste more than $2.3 billion in food each year.
A study published in Waste Management shows that average $12 worth of groceries, takeout and restaurant leftovers land in the trash bins every day.
That total amounts to 5.1% of night rental fees, similar to the tax rates applied to accommodation in many locations, according to the survey.
“People are basically paying additional accommodation taxes through money they spend on food they don’t eat while they’re on Airbnb,” lead author Brian Law, a professor of agricultural economics at Ohio State University, said in a statement.
To draw their conclusions, Roe and his colleagues conducted an online survey of 502 US adults who reported recent trips to Airbnb, VRBO, or other short-term rentals over the past year.
Almost all respondents stated that their stay was for the purpose of the holiday, and reported that only 3% were competing.
By combining statistical analyses with relevant national data, the researchers predicted annual estimates of up to $2.3 billion for foods not consumed by the end of these holidays.
Travelers tended to pay about $231 per night for accommodation, producing $12 per night in waste. This, according to research, produced $7 for groceries and $5 for items prepared elsewhere.
Approximately 80% of travelers reported eating at least one meal a day on rentals, while 6.3% said they ate every meal. Generally, groceries spending averaged $34 per day, data shows.
When the children attended rentals, more food was left at the end of their stay, the authors found.
Almost half of respondents said they would throw away more food than they would do at home while traveling, but only 21% reported large waste in food waste at home.
Research shows that Produce and Pantry Staples tops the charts for the most discarded vacation groceries.
Guests reported that about 46% of hosts offered recycling opportunities and over 20% gave instructions on what to do about getting food.
Food waste may now be piling up on short-term rentals, but most travelers have expressed their willingness to receive information from rental hosts about composting unfooded foods and donating them.
“I’m interested in reducing footprint among travelers,” observed Roe.
Building that interest, researchers suggested that local and local short-term rental host associations would help individual hosts include information about compost and donation options.
Peer-to-peer platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO can either integrate or consider food waste as an additional standard, along with the published tag of “sustainable hosts.”
“You can imagine this as a simple addition to the host’s information booklet, and it’s probably a very viable implementation,” says Roe.
“And if it knocked that $2 billion to $1.5 billion, it reduced the wasted food every year,” he added.
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