Circular Economy for Food Policy: The Case of the RePoPP Project in The City of Turin (Italy)

Abstract

Circular economy for food (CE) and food policies (FP) are two emerging but already prominent research areas, particularly when talking about the cities of the future. This paper analyzes the dynamics between these two fields of research, starting from review articles and the analysis of a case study, underlying the fundaments that FP and CE share. In particular, this paper focuses on using circular economy (CE) indicators and strategies to shape urban food policies (FP) to create a new business and political model towards sustainability. It introduces four converging perspectives, emerging from the literature, and analyzes how they have been integrated in the case study RePoPP (Re-design Project of Organic waste in Porta Palazzo market), a circular project born from the FP of the City of Turin (Italy). RePoPP is indeed a multi-actor project of urban circular food policies against food waste, which demonstrates how a circular approach can be the turning point in the creation of new food policies. This article wants to define for the first time a new research framework called “circular economy for food policy”, along with its characteristics: the application of a systemic approach and CE to problems and solutions, the need for a transdisciplinary and integrated project design for the 9R (responsibility, react, reduce, reuse, re-design, repair, recover, recycle, and rot), the use of food as a pivot of cross-sectoral change, and a new form of collaborative and integrated governance.

The circular economy approach for reducing food waste: a systematic review

“…Multi-disciplinary approaches spanning chemistry, process engineering and sustainability science, and sustainable solutions in "revolutionary" challenges in three intersecting food arenas: sustainable diet, valorization of unavoidable food supply chain waste and circularity of the food value chain UN-aligned systems Erceg & Margeta (2019) Identifying food waste treatment for small islands is discharging food waste in the city Fassio & Minotti (2019) The circular economy for food (CE) and food policy (FP) are two emerging research areas, with the intention of analysing the dynamics between these two research fields, based on review articles and the analysis of a case study Laso et al (2018) The major concern of food loss (FL) has been studied before, but in an isolated way, disregarding interdependencies with other areas. This paper intends to take a step forward, proposing a new procedure to evaluate different waste management alternatives based on the nexus approach through an integrated Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus Index (WEFCNI) Borrello et al (2017) Role of new technologies to assess consumers' willingness to actively engage in closed loops aimed at reducing food waste.…”

Integrating Circular Bioeconomy and Urban Dynamics to Define an Innovative Management of Bio-Waste: The Study Case of Turin

“…According to Eco dalle Città, since 2016 RePoPP has distributed almost 280 tons of food, which amounts to approximately 145,000 euros. The quality of the waste has also improved: the first data revealed a decrease in the quantity of organic matter in the unsorted waste (that is generally incinerated), while the OFMSW intercepted by the market increased by 95%, from 416 tons in 2016 to 811 tons in 2017 [56]. The great success of RePoPP is due to its ability to combine the fight against food waste and food insecurity, elements that are extremely fundamental for achieving SDG 2 and 12, with attention to social dynamics, in particular socio-integration of refugees and the inclusion of low-income citizens.…”

Understanding circular economy implementation in the agri-food supply chain: the case of an Indonesian organic fertiliser producer

“…By utilising circular economy, the agri-food supply chain could guarantee efficiency of agri-food processing. Further, it could guarantee food security and striving for sustainability in cross fields [36].…”