European Union's policymaking on sustainable waste management and circularity in agroecosystems: The potential for innovative interactions between science and decision-making

Abstract

The European Economic Community (EEC) and later the European Union (EU) have issued policies on waste during the last 50 years. This paper aims at analyzing EEC and EU's policymaking on waste management and circularity in agroecosystems as compared with other sectors of waste management (e.g., municipal, industrial, construction waste, etc.). Even if founded on the same general principles, and especially the precautionary principle, policymaking on waste and by-product management in agroecosystems differs from waste management in other sectors. In particular, agricultural waste management has been excluded from the European Waste Framework Directive, from its start in 1975 to this day. The issue of waste and by-products in agroecosystems has been addressed in multiple Directives and Regulations, historically aiming at reducing the potential negative impacts of residual organic matter application in agriculture. In the last decade, the swiftly growing interest for circular economy has triggered a breakthrough in traditional waste management, potentially affecting all economic sectors and enforcing systemic perspectives rather than more conventional “silo” approaches. Circularity in agroecosystems should thus become a major subject of EU's policymaking, but may suffer from its lack of a general framework, contrary to waste in other sectors. Moreover, agricultural valorization of urban residual organic streams may face several roadblocks in between differing legislations for agroecosystems and for “non-agricultural” systems. A systemic approach of the question of residual matter in agroecosystems, backing a strong policymaking framework for the sector, would be necessary in this context. Science-policymaking interactions are necessary to tackle these issues and should take innovative forms to address their complexity. Policy briefs, Policy Labs and the new European Commission Scientific Advice Mechanism represent existing innovative tools to take the topic of policymaking for sustainable waste management and circularity in agroecosystems forward.

Exploring the potential for nitrogen fertilizer use mitigation with bundles of management interventions

“…Moreover, scaling and implementation of novel technologies such as nutrient cycling from waste streams commonly requires cross-sectoral integration of various actors (e.g. policymakers, private sector, and potential users) within the agri-food system and beyond, which is often posing the most substantial barrier [87,88].…”

An Overview of Agro-Waste Management in Light of the Water-Energy-Waste Nexus

“…Burning wastes can cause adverse effects on the environment including increases in GHG and atmospheric temperature [100]. According to European environmental regulations, the management of organic residual matter (like agro-wastes) in agroecosystems has five dimensions of constraint: (1) water quality; (2) soil preservation; (3) gaseous emissions; (4) resource efficiency; and (5) human health [71]. Agro-industrial wastes should be handled using eco-friendly strategies instead of traditional processes (burning, landfilling, etc.)…”

“…Several studies have been published on agro-wastes and their management, revolving around topics such as sustainable management of urban wastes, with publications from India [67], Italy [68], Oman [69], Tanzania [70], the European Union [71], the USA [72], and China [73][74][75]. Other studies have focused on producing microbial bio-flavor [76], sustainable management of agro-industrial wastes [77], management of olive leaf wastes to include production of biomass, animal feed, and pharmaceutical products [78], producing biomaterials derived from food wastes for the horticulture industry, like biodegradable nursery pots [79], and sustainable use of agro-industrial wastes to produce microbial pigments [80].…”

Circulation of nutrients through bio-based fertilizer products: perspectives from farmers, suppliers, and civil society

“…Previous research on the circular economy has largely neglected business, social, and economic perspectives (Lieder and Rashid, 2016;Zink and Geyer, 2017) and the dynamics between bioeconomic innovations, policy instruments, markets and the civil society are not well understood (Gregson et al, 2015;Ho et al, 2022;Spekkink et al, 2022). Socioeconomic challenges include economic and financial viability, market and competition, standards and regulation, as well as cultural issues (Van Loon et al, 2018;Bressanelli et al, 2019;Duquennoi and Martinez, 2022). These challenges are highly relevant for the supply of and demand for BFPs, as several technical, economic, cultural, and regulatory issues need to be considered before achieving organic waste recycling through BFPs (Flotats et al, 2009;Ekane et al, 2021).…”