Chen LIU
Institute for Global Environmental Strategy
Dr. Chen LIU joined IGES in 2015. She earned a PhD in Biosphere Informatics from Kyoto University in 2001 in Japan, worked as a researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES; 2001-2009) and an Associate Professor in Nagoya University Graduate School of Environmental Studies (2010-2014) in Japan before joining IGES.Her current research is mainly on 3R policies and municipal solid waste management, food waste, and good practice of sustainable consumption in Asian and the Pacific region.
Food waste issues have attracted attention as international policy issues. Among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed in 2015, Goal 12.3 identifies food waste as an important challenge for achieving sustainable consumption, and stating the intention to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030. Food waste/organic waste constitutes a large portion of municipal waste in Asian countries. Local authorities have many advantages to reduce/recycle this part of waste by promoting of home compost/biogas, or compost/biogas within communities, which mainly include (1) reducing municipal solid waste management budget; (2) avoiding the environmental impacts of waste transport and handling; (3) closing the local recycling loop while strengthening the relationship among citizens, making better use of resources and establishing a sound material-cycle society; (4) limiting GHG emissions and helping to tackle climate change; (5) raising the awareness of householders regarding waste generation and helping develop a sense of responsibility for their waste. However, how to establish and scale up the household/community compost/biogas in the social systems and practices is a big challenge, not only for developed countries but also those still developing. To examine the direction of policy-making to promote this social innovation, the following three existing representative practices of household/community compost/biogas were chosen as case studies to clarify the current status and the key challenges.
Case study 1: Composting city Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia
Surabaya has been introducing composting as one of the key strategies in its waste management system to reduce the amount of organic waste to be landfilled since 2005. Even though composting has been practiced well in the pilot scales at different levels, including households, community, and centralised composting by the private sector, the challenge is how to continue and expand these pilot activities further at city-wide level to achieve the zero organic waste landfill by 2030.
Case study 2: The local loop of farms and tables facilitated by local currency: Ogawa-machi in Japan
In 2001, the town introduced a scheme to recycle kitchen garbage and turn it into biogas and liquid fertiliser. The city government collects the separated organic waste by 100 households and brings it to a treatment facility operated by an NGO. The liquid fertilisers are used by farms and the generated biogas is also used by farms as well as in the houses of residents. In return for the fertiliser, the farmers issue a local currency to the residents, which they can use to buy vegetables. The participating families can see the result of their actions in the form of the food they purchase from local farms.
Case study 3: Small scale pig farming using food waste from local restaurants in DaNang city, Viet Nam
The tourism sector has developed in DaNang city, and many smaller pig farms collect food waste from the restaurants in the urban areas. The practice has spread to many cities. However, there are no guidelines yet and ensuring the quality of the feed for animals is a challenge.
• Management and technology for sustainable and resilient energy, water, food, materials, , • Business and industry practices / case studies , • Public policy and governance
