Urban Food Waste generation: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Abstract:Greater economic activity and a wider economic gap between rural and urban areas have accelerated the growth of cities worldwide, along with their waste management issues. As a result, urban food waste (UFW) generation is expected to increase by 35% from 2007 to 2025. This paper examines the possible solutions to implement the environmentally safe recycling of UFW. If landfilling seems to be easy and economical for developed countries, it is not affordable for many large cities of Asia, Africa and South America. The on-site recycling of UFW is a more sustainable solution, but can only be justified economically if properly organized, community supported and recognized for its environmental benefits. On-site UFW composting is a solution which has already been implemented with success and which, if introduced worldwide, could provide agricultural soils with a good source of organic matter, capable of improving water management and fertilizing 3 million ha/yr. As compared to composting, anaerobic digestion could provide energy as biogas for a few high energy demanding industries within cities while also producing some organic soil amendment, after dewatering. Accordingly and for Asia and Africa, the on-site composting and anaerobic digestion of UFW could reduce the mass of MSW by 43 and Author-produced version of the article published in Int. J. Environment and Waste Management, 2009, Vol. 3, Nos. 1/2, 4-21. Original publication available at http://www.inderscience.com 55%, respectively, thus help there cities manage almost all of their MSW. For North America and Europe, such practice could reduce earth warming trends.

Production vs. consumption management for sustainable agricultural resources

“…Low profitability in rural sectors worldwide has led to a major migration of populations from rural areas to urban centres. Figure 3 illustrates the high correlation between gross domestic product (GDP) and urban population (UP) in 2005 for countries from all continents (Adhikari et al, 2009). As a country increases its GDP, its urban environment become more financially attractive and the economic gap widens between rural and urban areas.…”

Analysing global food waste problem: pinpointing the facts and estimating the energy content

“…Methane, CH 4 , is the simplest alkane and has 21 times more global warming potential compared to carbon dioxide over a time span of 100 years [34]. Landfills are responsible for approximately 8% of world's anthropogenic methane emissions [35]. In countries with high gross domestic product, GDP, this value goes up to 30 to 37%.…”

“…Consequently, the landfill share of global anthropogenic methane emissions will increase from 8% to 10% [35].…”

Recycling of organic wastes using locally isolated lignocellulolytic strains and sustainable technology

“…Asian countries known for their great rural population produce more organic wastes, especially kitchen wastes, and fewer recyclable items such as paper, metals and plastics [1]. Statistically, Asia produces the largest amount of urban food waste (UFW) in the world and this is expected to increase up to 418 million tons (53 % of the total world UFW) by 2025 [2]. Unlike the US, where composting facilities in operation were estimated at 3800 sites [3] in which 40.74 % of these composting facilities are responsible for composting residential source-separated food wastes [4] and yard trimmings, most of the wastes in Asia are landfilled.…”