Abstract for: Balancing people, planet, and profit in urban food waste management

This paper explores the dynamic impacts of food waste management options on the triple bottom lines of sustainable development in urban circular economies. We present a system dynamics model of the urban agri-food supply chain. This model simulates the fluxes of food and food waste throughout the supply chain, as well as their impacts on economy, society and environment. Using Bristol city in the United Kingdom as a case-study, we evaluate the impacts of various food waste management options including reduction, redistribution, animal feed, anaerobic digestion, composting, incineration, and landfilling. The results show that food waste reduction in consumer sectors and redistribution in supply sectors offer the greatest benefits for the environment, society, and economy. Although these options can potentially have some adverse economic effects on the supply side due to a reduction in demand, their considerably high benefits make them high-reward, low-risk options. We thus conclude that food waste reduction and redistribution are the only options with a clear triple-win for people, planet and profit. This paper makes a significant contribution by introducing a robust quantitative model and a novel triple bottom line framework for sustainable food waste management in urban circular economies.