Circular thinking to close the gaps in urban food systems

I wanted to share these Rikolto solutions using circular thinking on the occasion of the World Cities Day, 31 of October. A few years back, I had the pleasure to visit Arusha, Tanzania, a city that had a steep growth the last decades, partly because of housing important multilateral initiatives.

At that time, Rikolto was running the "Generation Food" initiative, an incubator programme in which a selected number of younger entrepreneurs gets trained and enabled to bring their business ideas to the food market.

The fresh food market in the centre of the city produces a lot of food waste, and a group of youth entrepreneurs developed Kusanya, a business to collect and transport the food waste to companies who could use it as raw material. One of these companies was Chanzi, a local enterprise that turned that waste into animal feed and compost through black soldier flies, closing as such the circle to the farmers. Initially, it didn't work as planned. Kusanya did not survive partly due to governance issues and partly due to the lack of a proper waste collection strategy in the market.

The central market in Arusha, Tanzania. After vendors and the city council introduced organic waste sorting, food safety compliance rose from 35% to 65%.

Then, Rikolto, with Arusha City Council and the market vendors, developed new market rules and set up a space in the market to sort and collect organic waste. We could also link Chanzi to the city's Sanitation Department. The new rules also set hygiene standards for vendors, and during the pilot, food safety compliance rose from 35% to 65%.

And that's perhaps the perfect example of how Rikolto enters the food system. We aim not only to provide training and launch as many entrepreneurs as possible but support those that close the gaps in the food system, one that creates good food, takes care of the planet and makes sure that the actors that make it happen, like market vendors, small and medium enterprises and farmers, can thrive. And such a sustainable food system necessarily builds on circularity.

In Indonesia, my colleagues often share the story of Pak Sri Basuki Rachmat. When COVID-19 cost him his job, he returned to Surakarta and joined a local waste bank, a community scheme where residents bring in sorted waste. In 2021, he took a training course in black soldier fly farming that we ran with our partner Gita Pertiwi and the city's Department of Food Security and Agriculture and started a business with about €150.

Sri Basuki Rachmat started his larvae business in Surakarta with about €150. Fed on hotel food waste, his larvae cut his catfish feed costs by 60%.

Today, food waste from a luxury hotel feeds his larvae, the residue fertilises the hotel's rooftop farm, and the harvest goes back to the hotel's kitchen. His larvae also cut the feed costs for his own catfish by 60%.

Better still would be less waste in the first place. But for the waste that remains, it's hard to imagine a tighter loop. Hotels threw out their food waste unsorted, small fish farmers lacked affordable inputs, and the city already ran its own programme on fish farming. What was missing was the link between them. That's the role we took on with Gita Pertiwi: linking waste banks, the city's waste processing site, the city government and private companies, so that food waste becomes feed.

Back in 2019, we brought Surakarta's government into this work. Once that link was made, the model grew: five community groups now run food waste streams across the city and have reused nearly 140 tonnes of food waste since 2023, while food-sharing groups have redistributed 64.5 tonnes of surplus food. Gita Pertiwi has since presented the model to Denpasar, Bogor, Malang and Madiun.

One of five community groups in Surakarta turning food waste into feed and fertiliser. Together, they have reused nearly 140 tonnes since 2023.

Another example comes from here in Belgium. I have a big family and a lot of my aunts and uncles are spending the last years of their life in an elderly home. And when visiting them, they mainly chat about the weather and the food. Often, they don't enjoy the food much and it's a challenge for them to eat well. Malnutrition is a common problem in elderly homes.

Food too is often considered as a logistical matter only. Our Belgian team, together with "Mosquito in the Room'" launched the "Whole Care Food Approach" initiative for care facilities. They are enabling a connection between tasteful food, healthy eating, and reducing food waste. Because if people don't eat their meals, food ends up in the bin.

This approach has already been tested successfully in several hospitals and other care institutions. This is another example that applies circular thinking to fill the gaps in the food system: health, happiness, and reduction of food waste. It cannot get any better.

As Rikolto, we are continuously scanning the food system, looking for opportunities to connect the dots, to fill the existing gaps and transform them from a challenge into benefits for consumers, producers and the planet. Nothing exists in isolation, and a sustainable food system that builds on circularity is no exception: different actors with good relationships, that interact and are well-connected based upon each other's needs, strengths and complementarity are key to make it happen!

Happy World Cities Day!

The Whole Care Food Approach was launched at the Food Waste Festival in Belgium last September.

If you want additional information, you can always reach out to me or my colleagues:

• Indonesia - Muhammad Ulil Ahsan [email protected]
• Tanzania - Hildagard Okoth [email protected]
• Belgium - Mélodie Arts - [email protected]

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