ePrints@IIScePrints@IISc Home | About | Browse | Latest Additions | Advanced Search | Contact | Help

Stakeholder Assessment on Closing Nutrient Cycles through Co-Recycling of Biodegradable Household Kitchen Waste and Black Water between Rural and Urban Areas in South India

Fendel, V and Kranert, M and Maurer, C and Garcés-Sánchez, G and Huang, J and Ramakrishna, G (2022) Stakeholder Assessment on Closing Nutrient Cycles through Co-Recycling of Biodegradable Household Kitchen Waste and Black Water between Rural and Urban Areas in South India. In: Recycling, 7 (4).

[img]
Preview
PDF
recycling_07-04_2022.pdf - Published Version

Download (3MB) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling7040049

Abstract

Agricultural land degradation, urban migration, increasing food demand and waste, and inadequate sanitation systems all affect farmers, local society, and the environment in South India. Joint recycling of biodegradable secondary household resources to close nutrient cycles between urban and rural regions can address all these challenges and thus several SDGs at the same time. Efforts are being made to this end, but many attempts fail. The central research question is, therefore: how can co-recycling concepts be evaluated in this context? For this purpose, composting plants, biogas fermenters, and a high-tech concept to produce plant charcoal, design fertilizer, and biopolymers are considered. The aim of this study is to evaluate the recycling concepts from the stakeholders’ perspective to avoid gaps between theory and practice. Six expert and one focus group interviews on two successful on-site case studies and 15 online expert interviews with thematic actors were qualitatively evaluated and presented in a social network analysis to identify preferences and indicators for the further evaluation of co-recycling concepts. The results show that the focus is on mature technologies such as compost and biogas. High-tech solutions are currently still in rudimentary demand but will play a more important role in the future. To evaluate such concepts, seven key indicators and their measured values were identified and clustered into the categories ecological, social, technical, economic, and connective. The results show that this methodology of close interaction with stakeholders and the evaluation of successful regional case studies minimize the gap between practice and theory, contribute to several goals of the SDGs, and thus enable such concepts to be implemented sustainably.

Item Type: Journal Article
Publication: Recycling
Publisher: MDPI
Additional Information: The copyright for this article belongs to the Authors.
Keywords: black water; circular economy; India; kitchen waste; natural fertilizer; resource efficiency; sustainable development goals
Department/Centre: Division of Mechanical Sciences > Divecha Centre for Climate Change
Date Deposited: 24 Sep 2022 06:49
Last Modified: 24 Sep 2022 06:49
URI: https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/76660

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item