Business models for urban food waste prevention, redistribution, recovery and recycling

Abstract

The number of people living in cities is expected to reach 68% of the global population by 2050. Food security for growing populations is an increasing concern. Currently one-third, or 1.3 billion metric tons of food is lost or wasted along the food value chain, which results in not only loss of calories and nutrition available for human consumption, but also valuable inputs required for its production and distribution. Target 12.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to ‘halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030’. This is relevant for both low-middle and high-income countries, where food loss and waste occurs at all points along the supply chain, from postharvest production to consumption. The effects of reductions in food loss and waste can be seen socially, environmentally and financially. Over 400 businesses were analyzed for this study to understand the types of entities working to reduce food waste. Subsequently, 18 business models were developed to provide greater insight into proven models utilizing excess food or waste as part of their operations, and where this occurs along the supply chain. The categorization followed the Food Waste Recovery (and Mitigation) Hierarchy and is presented using business model canvas flows. Systems for monitoring and management of excess food and food waste were most prevalent in prevention organizations. For redistribution, creating connections among stakeholders through platforms to form a secondary market and providing logistical services to move excess food to charities were the most prominent. Common recovery methods include transforming excess food and food waste into both food and non-food products. For example, utilizing food suitable for human consumption in cafés, soup kitchens or preserved products, and waste converted into non-food products such as bio-plastics. If none of these options is available, recycling pathways such as processing for animal feed, compost or energy recovery are available. These models could be supported by policies and regulations which are often missing at the national and local levels. There has been some success by governments in creating supportive enabling environments for the activities of businesses to grow and succeed, such as standardizing the production of animal feed in Japan and tax deductions for donations, enabling redistribution efforts in the United States. Ultimately, the success of these initiatives requires education and training for staff as well as consumers, and raising awareness among policy-makers of the need to include the reduction of food loss and waste on the national agenda. An enabling environment can increase the possibilities for the prevention, redistribution, recovery and recycling of excess food and food waste.