I was at a sustainable energy conference yesterday and someone threw out this statistic: From 1974 to 2003, the average refrigerator volume increased from 17.5 to 22.5 cubic feet. (Sorry, I don’t have a link right now.)
On the plus side, refrigerators’ energy efficiency has increased by 74 percent. The average 1974 ‘fridge used 1825 kwh/year, compared to 476 kwh in 2003.
Since we can have larger refrigerators that use less energy, most people do. From a food waste perspective, that leads to one small problem: nobody likes an empty ‘fridge. I would guess that a great deal of food waste comes because we feel the need to keep our refrigerators stocked.
This “Full Cupboard Effect” compels us to buy more food than is possible to eat before it goes bad. Do you think your ‘fridge size affects how you shop? Let me know what you think of this theory.
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