Household metabolism and environmental impacts of household consumption on urban city – Systematic review

Abstract

Household metabolism evaluation is an important concept for urban development because it helps in resource efficiency transition. This research is intended to map the current household metabolism literature to discover and highlight the obstacles to household expenditures in terms of food consumption and waste produced, as well as the environmental impact of sustainable consumption in cities. The study systematically reviews the papers on household metabolism in cities from 1995 until the end of March 2021. We used the PRISMA framework for systematic literature searches in Web of Science, SCOPUS, Science Direct, and other databases. Only 71 papers were declared acceptable for review in the analysis after a thorough selection procedure, and we chose only 58 for quantitative analysis. Additionally, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of the literature to highlight countries’ efforts on household metabolism. The results revealed that most of these studies are focused on specific domains (e.g., direct and indirect energy, water, or waste production), but few studies focused specifically on household food metabolism, waste, and indirect energy as a result of food consumption. The paper concludes after analysing the literature and methodologies used for quantifying and evaluating direct and indirect environmental loads, factors of food consumption and waste resulting from households, and their potential application in sustainable development to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns and resource efficiency. Finally, we linked the identified results from the recent findings with policies and identified areas for future research needs.