Recycling Food Waste: An Investigation into the Delicate Process of Bio-waste Valuation

François-Joseph Daniel,Marion Martin

doi:10.5334/wwwj.73

Abstract

For more than 20 years, Europe has been encouraging household bio-waste recycling. This trend is spurred by the promise of a circular economy built around the diversion from landfills, the regeneration of farmland and the production of alternatives to fossil fuel energy. It involves valuation processes, through which a value—both economic and environmental—is assigned to the material in circulation. This article investigates the nature of these processes, particularly the ways in which value is created within the chains of actors that make up these industries. Through the analysis of a case of source-separated household bio-waste collection, we show that bio-waste valuation processes are difficult to master. Due to the living, putrescible, unstable and relatively unlucrative nature of this material, valuation processes are fragile assemblages. They largely depend on the policies, infrastructures, practices and material conditions involved in the handling, care, transport and processing of food waste.

Highlights

After presenting the contours of the case-study and the qualitative survey that served to analyse it, we show how valuation processes unfold at different points in the value chain
Presentation of the case The Bioclou is an experiment of bio-waste collection that was initiated by the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg (Eurométropole de Strasbourg – EMS), the local authority in charge of municipal waste management
Bio-waste Recycling Chains as a Fragile Assemblage The qualitative analysis provided in this article moved the sociological focus away from the service users and their individual engagement to consider a broader valuation process involving a wider range of social, economic and material assemblages. It shed light on the complex valuation processes in which these recycling streams are embedded, and through which both economic and environmental values are created. These processes are structured around the following: networks of actors through which residual material circulates; care practices, social control and support work that facilitate the sorting of biowaste; infrastructures and managerial practices that optimise its transport and processing; and evaluation devices and practices to guarantee the state of this material and allow for its quality to be improved at different points in the value chain

Summary

Introduction

Numerous initiatives have been developed to recycle bio-waste, supply the compost production sector and in some cases produce biogas.. Numerous initiatives have been developed to recycle bio-waste, supply the compost production sector and in some cases produce biogas.3 Such recycling is emblematic of a recent trend in capitalist societies (O’Brien 2012) towards the political and institutional organization of the supply of residual material and the structuring of economic channels around recycling. This trend is spurred by the promise of a circular economy built around the diversion from landfills, the regeneration of farmland and the production of alternatives to fossil fuel energy

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion