Modelling the enablers of food supply chain for reduction in carbon footprint

Properties of composts from household food waste produced in automatic composters.

Assessing the environmental performance for more local and more circular biowaste management options at city-region level

This paper considers the limits and potential of ‘urban metabolism’ to conceptualize city processes. Three ‘ecologies’ of urban metabolism have emerged. Each privileges a particular dimension of urban space, shaped by epistemology, politics, and model-making. Marxist ecologies theorize it as hybridized socio-natures that (re)produce uneven outcomes; industrial ecology, as stocks and flows of materials and energy; and urban ecology, as complex socio-ecological systems. We map these scholarly i...

The boundaries of urban metabolism Towards a political–industrial ecology

Urban food systems are linear and wasteful. Strategies towards more circular food systems need to be adopted; however, what these strategies may be and what effects they may have on other urban systems is not well documented. With this study, we offer a systemic representation of the Brussels Capital Region food system through mapping its phosphorus and energy flows, and we evaluate the effect that three theoretical scenarios will have on these flows, and on the circularity level of the system. The results show that the Brussels food system is strongly linear and that no more than 2% of the incoming P can currently be reused within the city. Food waste valorization and sewage sludge utilization can increase the amount of P available for reuse without negatively affecting the net amount of electricity recovered. The amount of P available in the urban effluents can theoretically cover the demand for mineral P in the agricultural systems of the two neighboring Brabant provinces. The regulatory framework for the reuse of urban effluents is, however, hostile and it is still to be determined whether there is a demand for re-introducing these P flows in the agri-food system that feeds Brussels.

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Phosphorus and energy flows through the food system of Brussels Capital Region

Decentralised Organic Resource Treatments – Classification and comparison through Extended Material Flow Analysis

Given that many voices have argued in favour of combining insights on urban metabolism from different disciplinary angles, there seems to be no lack of general willingness to engage in interdisciplinary research on urban metabolism. Instead, we argue, the central problem lies in the nitty-gritty and mundane practicalities of working across research teams, departments and temporalities. In this paper, we offer a detailed description of an interdisciplinary collaboration that has occurred in practice: a joint effort on the study of potential transition scenarios regarding the metabolism of biowaste in the city-region of Brussels. This inter-project collaboration involved four different research teams from three faculties and two universities, each with a specific set of expertise and interests. Biowaste metabolism and nutrient recirculation is a recurring theme in the literature on urban metabolism. It relates to early studies on urban metabolism and concerns about the depletion of soil fertility and different forms of pollution. The paper describes each research project point of departure in order to allow readers with different disciplinary backgrounds to apprehend the distance that separated the projects before they decided to work together on the urban biowaste metabolism. Furthermore, we present moments of convergence that helped to bring these research processes together. Finally, we offer a critical reflection, suggesting both enabling factors and limits of the inter-project collaboration on biowaste metabolism in Brussels.

/pdf/conditions-and-concepts-for-interdisciplinary-urban-4i5uia6382.pdf

Conditions and concepts for interdisciplinary urban metabolism research–the case of an inter-project collaboration on biowaste

Purpose




The paper aims to build a political understanding of private waste management. Although the politics of waste is a matter of increasing interest across the social sciences, private sector choices about waste prevention and recycling – and their impacts on society – receive little attention in waste scholarship.




Design/methodology/approach




Leveraging assemblage thinking and the actor-network theory, this paper provides an empirical analysis of waste prevention and recycling practices in the marketplace of Anderlecht, in Brussels. This particular case is of interest because it concerns the largest and most popular city marketplace and a resource for the most socioeconomically precarious among Brussels’ population.




Findings




Over the past decade, under the banner of sustainability, the private company that managed the site developed multiple initiatives to prevent litter and control the costs of waste management by introducing new regulations and engaging with both the private and non-profit sectors.




Originality/value




Yet, the impact of these initiatives remains unknown with regard to the community served by the market and its vendors in particular. This paper presents the results of a series of fieldwork activities and interviews with key informants and actors in waste management conducted over more than a year since November 2016.

/pdf/assemblages-of-private-waste-management-and-recycling-the-26gy6it4ib.pdf

Assemblages of private waste management and recycling: The case of the Anderlecht marketplace in Brussels

Given that many voices have argued in favour of combining insights on urban metabolism from different disciplinary angles, there seems to be no lack of general willingness to engage in interdisciplinary research on urban metabolism. Instead, we argue, the central problem lies in the nitty-gritty and mundane practicalities of working across research teams, departments and temporalities. In this paper, we offer a detailed description of an interdisciplinary collaboration that has occurred in practice: a joint effort on the study of potential transition scenarios regarding the metabolism of biowaste in the city-region of Brussels. This inter-project collaboration involved four different research teams from three faculties and two universities, each with a specific set of expertise and interests. Biowaste metabolism and nutrient recirculation is a recurring theme in the literature on urban metabolism. It relates to early studies on urban metabolism and concerns about the depletion of soil fertility and different forms of pollution. The paper describes each research project point of departure in order to allow readers with different disciplinary backgrounds to apprehend the distance that separated the projects before they decided to work together on the urban biowaste metabolism. Furthermore, we present moments of convergences that helped to bring these research processes together. Finally, we offer a critical reflection, suggesting both enabling factors and limits of the inter-project collaboration on biowaste metabolism in Brussels.

Andrea Bortolotti

Papers

Decentralised Organic Resource Treatments – Classification and comparison through Extended Material Flow Analysis

Conditions and concepts for interdisciplinary urban metabolism research–the case of an inter-project collaboration on biowaste

Assemblages of private waste management and recycling: The case of the Anderlecht marketplace in Brussels

Conditions and concepts for interdisciplinary urban metabolism research - The case of an inter-project collaboration on biowaste in Brussels

Analyse théorique de la littérature décrivant les outils techniques de valorisation décentralisée de biodéchets des professionnels: Rapport Final