Creating Sustainable Action Nets: The case of ugly vegetables

Abstract

Food wastage is a major problem in the world today. Previous research on the subject has however paid little attention to how the creation of a novel waste prevention product can contribute to addressing the environmental challenges of food waste. This paper mitigates these shortcomings by illustrating how a novel waste prevention product is created and becomes a sustainability object that supports a more sustainable way of living. Based on a field study from Swedish grocery stores, this paper demonstrates how the novel waste prevention product gains momentum from being linked to different contexts, how its development depends on physical artifacts, and requires the reconstruction of the existing action net. The paper further illustrates that there is a relationship between sustainability objects, action nets, and standards, since the novel waste prevention product acts as a sustainability object that creates contradictions and paradoxes that question institutions and standards. Trough that, the creation of a novel waste prevention product leads to the construction of more sustainable action nets and categories.