Circular cities: Exploring motives and barriers to citizen engagement in circular food behaviors

Urbanization is projected to significantly increase food consumption in cities, exacerbating the negative impact of the current food system on the environment. As a response, the transition towards a more circular, regenerative urban food system is proposed to close the loop between food production and consumption. Considering the critical role of urban citizens, this study employs the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behavior (COM-B) model to investigate the factors that influence urban citizens to engage in circular behaviors across growing, obtaining, cooking, storing, and disposing of food. By conducting semi-structured interviews with diverse citizens in Wageningen and Utrecht, this study finds that reflective motivation and social opportunity serve as the main motives for engagement in circular food behaviors, while physical opportunity and psychological capability as well as social opportunity and automatic motivation often act as barriers. Building on these insights, the study proposes policy interventions and emphasizes the need for multi-faceted intervention strategies that address existing barriers at the same time.