Organic resources in the circular economy

Using innovative approaches, management and partnerships to transform food waste and other organic resources into closed-loop value chains.

Meet the team

Feeding cities has resulted in the linear production and transport of vast amounts of food and other organic resources, much of which ends up down our toilets, in expensive landfills or polluting waterways. A third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted, along with the associated water, nutrients and energy. And a broken value chain this inefficient does not make business sense. Transformative change is needed to move away from the current linear approach towards a more circular economy.

By recovering and reusing food waste, wastewater and other organic resources we can create closed cycles that mimic nature. Creating circular organic value chains avoids pollution, reduces depletion of finite valuable resources, contributes to food security, improves public health and creates local employment opportunities – all these benefits from untapped and undervalued waste streams.

Transforming to a circular economy requires cross-sectoral collaboration across the value chain from end-users to producers. We get it. We bring together diverse stakeholders from the waste, energy, water and food sectors to partner in creating efficient and effective value chains. We understand that there are barriers to change – such as regulatory fragmentation or cost-effectiveness – in a complex system. We’ll work with you to overcome these barriers and to tailor strategic and practical solutions to address your needs while maximising sustainable outcomes.

PROJECT | 2019

Organix19: organics waste management in a circular economy

Organix19 – a forum developed by ISF in partnership with the Department of Planning, Infrastructure, and Environment, and sponsored by Sydney Water – brought together 65 stakeholders involved in the generation, management, reuse, regulation and research of organics waste management in the Greater Sydney region. The aim was to provide an opportunity for cross-sectoral stakeholders to engage in discussion about current and emerging policy, technology and practices in organics waste management.

At the forum, ISF collaboratively created a 20-year vision of a transformed system based on circular economy principles and a pathway to attain it. This has been used to inform policy, strategies and action being developed in NSW during this period of rapid growth and urban densification.

Client: Environment Protection Authority (NSW)

Researchers: Dena Fam, Melita Jazbec, Andrea Turner, Brent Jacobs, Laura Wynne, Elsa Dominish, Federico Davila, Fiona Berry, Katie Ross, Louise Boronyak, Rachael Wakefield-Rann, Nick Florin, Rachel Watson, Dana Cordell

RESEARCH OUTPUTS

Organix19 - Organics waste management in a circular economy (2019) (Report)

PROJECT | 2018-2020

Organics Revolution: planning for 2036 and beyond

This project aimed to assist the amalgamated Inner West Council (IWC), formerly Leichhardt, Marrickville and Ashfield councils, to consider innovative new ways of managing the various organic waste streams within their local government area.

The study involved collating disparate waste data sets to obtain a more holistic picture of organic materials within the IWC area and enable novel visual representation through geospatial ‘hot spot’ mapping. The mapping brought together data from the residential, commercial and institutional sectors and multiple types of organics from food waste and garden organics to wastewater and fats oils and grease from grease traps.

The project also involved the development of an inventory of potential innovative options created through an international literature review. This inventory used to assist IWC to consider a wide range of potential options from avoidance to anaerobic digestion at multiple scales through novel deliberative decision making workshops using the hot spot maps. A broad selection of illustrative options were then used to conduct costs and benefits analysis to help the council consider how it might use a range of options to meet targets in the future.

Researchers: Melita Jazbec, Andrea Turner, Ben Madden

People inspecting roots and soil of plants on a Sydney farm

PROJECT | 2015-2017

Creating demand for recycled organic compost: social research on the Sydney compost value chain

For this NSW Environment Protection Authority-funded project, ISF worked in partnership with the NSW Department of Primary Industries' Greater Sydney Local Land Services and NSW Farmers. Our aim was to investigate and unlock the demand potential for recycled organic compost in Sydney’s vegetable production.

PROJECT | 2018-2021

From urban waste to sustainable value chains: linking sanitation and agriculture through innovative partnerships in Sri Lanka

This applied research project in Sri Lanka connects the waste management, sanitation and agriculture sectors through the circular economy, to improve food security and environmental health. This project is a partnership between ISF, the International Water Management Institute, Janathakshan Ltd, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Department of Agriculture.

PROJECT | 2021

Circular economy opportunities for fisheries and aquaculture in Australia

Current resource use challenges sustainability and the resilience of industries. Circular value chains allow management of waste losses and maximise resource recovery. A circular economy (CE) mimics the cycles in nature in which there is no waste. Maximum value and utility of products and materials is maintained in CE through a combination of extending product lifetimes, increasing resource use intensity, and end-of-life material recycling. CE includes the idea of regenerative development, i.e. as the earth’s resources cycle as materials through the economy they restore and enhance, rather than deplete, natural capital.

Economic opportunities of circularity are well identified; the World Economic Forum estimates global adoption of CE principles would deliver cost savings of US$1 trillion dollars per annum by 2025. A recent ISF study estimated an Australian CE could be worth AU$2 billion by 2025. However, current knowledge gaps constrain how CE may develop, at what scale it makes sense to close loops, and the strategies, policy mix and incentives needed to promote circularity.

For fisheries and aquaculture, CE adoption addresses waste challenges through the creation of new value chains for fish/shell waste and substitution or recycling plastics. A CE approach also delivers the co-benefits of resource efficiency, contributions to healthy aquatic ecosystems and the creation of added value and new employment. Frameworks to guide ‘CE thinking’ exist e.g. Ellen Macarthur Foundation’s 10R’s and ReSOLVE (see Supplementary Material), but have not been explored, are often omitted in food innovation debates (Pagotto and Halog, 2015), and opportunities for implementation within the sector are still emerging (e.g. using wine production waste to feed farmed abalone, or repurposing mussel shells as high-nutrient fertiliser). The need to understand the context, opportunity and benefit of CE innovations and to identify strategic approaches to sectoral circularity at scale are apparent.

Objectives:

1. Develop increased knowledge of how the concept of circular economy relates to fishing and aquaculture, including downstream activities such as post-harvest processing and packaging.

2. Develop increased knowledge of how circular practices being applied in other sectors and industries relate to the fishing and aquaculture sectors and could be adopted by fishing and aquaculture businesses. This includes opportunities for fisheries/aquaculture industries to develop circular linkages with other marine and land based sectors.

3. Identify opportunities that are available and areas for exploration in the short, medium and longer term to progress a circular economy for fisheries and aquaculture.

4. Identify barriers to adopting circularity within the fisheries/aquaculture sector.

Client: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Researchers: Kate Barclay, Rebecca Cunningham, Dana Cordell, Nick McClean, Brent Jacobs, Samantha Sharpe

PROJECT | 2017-2018

Central Park Precinct organics management feasibility study

ISF collaborated with Flow Systems (now the Altogether Group), JLL, Avac and Active Research on a City of Sydney Innovation Grant project. The research focused on investigating the feasibility of using anaerobic digestion at a local building/precinct scale to manage multiple organic waste streams in a dense urban environment.

PROJECT | 2020-2021

Zero Waste Leura

By focusing on food waste avoidance, Blue Mountains hospitality businesses can reduce organic waste generation and therefore minimise the environmental impact and cost of organic waste disposal.

PROJECT | 2017

Waste diversion strategies for the City of Playford

A waste diversion strategy and roadmap was developed for the City of Playford, to increase waste diversion rates from landfill and to reduce contamination rates of the kerbside-collected recycled stream. ISF collaborated in the development of the strategy with MRA Consulting, using a range of scenarios including education and enabling community engagement initiatives and penalty/incentive options or user pay mechanisms.

A staged approach was developed with a focus on education and waste awareness. It outlined the short-term action of rolling out food and garden organics capturing and targeted education, and the mid-term action of establishing cost-driven incentives to drive the transition to the long-term goal of a circular economy.

Whilst this strategy focused on the City of Playford it also considered potential expansion to the other northern Adelaide councils.

Client: "City of Playford, SA"

Researchers: Melita Jazbec, Nick Florin, Damien Giurco

NEWS | Feb 2017

LFHW Festival & Markets food waste

ISF assisted NSW EPA’s Love Food Hate Waste program to engage with stallholders and organisers of farmer’s markets and food festivals around the issue of food waste. The project developed a ‘FoodStallSavers’ online toolkit for organisers and stallholders to understand, identify, measure and reduce avoidable food waste from their events.

PROJECT | 2017

The Pyrmont-Ultimo Precinct scale organics management scoping study

ISF collaborated with Sydney Water, the NSW Environment Protection Authority and other enthusiastic stakeholders in the vibrant Pyrmont-Ultimo Precinct (PUP) corridor, in the heart of Sydney, to help drive innovation in organics waste management. Within the City of Sydney council area, the PUP corridor, encompassing the iconic Central Park development, is a diverse area comprising residential, educational, office and commercial/retail properties.

Kitchen compost bin with fruit and vegetable scraps

PROJECT | 2016

Food scraps to soil conditioner: processing food waste onsite at UTS

The university leads the way with an award-winning, cross-campus program of organic waste management.

Garbage bin filled with food waste and someone picking up a handful

IMPACT STORY

No flies on ISF as it leads the way in urban organics and food waste management

Ground-breaking research at UTS’s Institute for Sustainable Futures on managing food waste and reducing the amount of organic refuse going to landfill is underpinning adventurous new projects, from a maggot farm at the urban Barangaroo development to an ambitious zero-waste scheme in the Blue Mountains.