Research & reports

Shrestha P., Small G.E., Kay A. · PLOS ONE, 15(4):e0230996 · United States

A study measuring and quantifying nutrient recovery efficiency and loss from compost application in urban gardens. It shows compost often supplies phosphorus far in excess of crop demand, and surplus P can be lost to waterways. The work argues that closing the food-waste-to-compost loop in urban agriculture must be designed for sustainable nutrient management, not just diversion.

· Journal of Cleaner Production · Malaysia

Uses a university case study and life-cycle assessment to demonstrate community-scale food waste composting; with leaves as bulking agent it took 7 months, yielding 30% compost meeting organic fertiliser standards.

Yacaman Ochoa C., Mataran Ruiz A., Mata Olmo R., Macias Figueroa A., Torres Rodriguez A. · Land · Andalucia, Spain

Two Andalusian case studies analysing how peri-urban organic agriculture and short food supply chains strengthen city/region food systems by shortening the chain and reducing handling stages and spoilage.

Bergstrand K., Asp H., Hultberg M. · Sustainability · Sweden

Evaluates using nutrient-rich anaerobic digestate from urban food waste as a hydroponic nutrient solution, supporting a closed-loop approach to urban and peri-urban food production.

Fattibene D., Recanati F., Dembska K., Antonelli M. · Resources · Europe (40 cities across 16 countries)

Presents a framework to assess urban food waste policies and initiatives across 40 cities in 16 European countries, linking policy types, intervention areas, and actors to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Wielemaker R., Oenema O., Zeeman G., Weijma J. · Science of the Total Environment, 668:1277-1288 · Global

Drawing on a survey of urban agriculture practitioners in industrialised countries, this study characterises how city-derived resources such as compost, food waste and urine are used as fertiliser and how nutrients are managed. It maps the practices and challenges of cycling urban organic waste back to farmland, systematising on-the-ground approaches that link food-waste composting to urban agriculture.

Pai S., Ai N., Zheng J. · Sustainable Cities and Society, 50:101683 · United States

Using Chicago as a case study, this analysis assesses the feasibility of decentralized community composting on portions of public parks in terms of cost and greenhouse gas emissions. It finds decentralized composting delivers outreach, landfill diversion and cost-saving benefits, with an estimated net benefit of about $100 per tonne, indicating the financial viability of a city-wide strategy to compost household food waste locally.

Marshman J., Scott S. · Canadian Food Studies · Ontario, Canada

A study of five Ontario gleaning groups showing that modern gleaning contributes to community food security by reducing food waste, improving access to fresh food, and fostering social connections.

Marion Tharrey, Marlène Pérignon, Pascale Scheromm, Caroline Méjean, Nicole Darmon · BMC Public Health · France

The JArDinS study is a quasi-experimental protocol designed to assess the impact of community garden participation on the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles in Montpellier, France. It will recruit 80 new gardeners and 80 matched control volunteers, measuring lifestyle sustainability across social/health, environmental, and economic dimensions over one year using food supply diaries, accelerometers, and questionnaires. The study aims to compare outcome changes between the groups to evaluate causality.

N. R. Baker, Simon Popay, James Bennett, Moya Kneafsey · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United Kingdom

This paper introduced "net yield efficiency" (NYE) to compare food system performance by accounting for yields, loss, and waste. A UK case study compared fresh vegetable and salad waste between a community supported agriculture (CSA) scheme and the supermarket system. The study found that the CSA system wasted only 6.71% by weight across all stages, dramatically outperforming the supermarket system which wasted 40.7–47.7%. These findings highlight significant differences between the systems and suggest NYE offers a more accurate measure of food system performance.

Alma E. Nacua · Modern Concepts & Developments in Agronomy · Philippines (Manila)

This paper aimed to observe Pechay stem growth in loam soil planted in recycled fruit Styrofoam boxes and to upcycle Pechay stems in Ermita, Manila, Philippines, also observing signs of infection. An experimental design method was used, with Pechay seeds grown in the same container type with loam soil as a control. Out of 180 Pechay stems planted, 128 survived, showing a 71% survival growth rate. Pechay grown from seeds had a 98% survival rate.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・501AC1000000019） · Japan

The 2019 act promoting food-loss reduction as a national movement, assigning roles to government, business and consumers and supporting food banks — policy context for community food redistribution and children's cafeterias.

消費者庁 · 消費者庁 · Japan

This Consumer Affairs Agency page summarizes Japan's Food Loss Reduction Promotion Act, promulgated 31 May 2019 and enforced from 1 October 2019, which sets out national and local government responsibilities and the framework for a basic policy on reducing food loss. A second basic policy was adopted by cabinet decision on 25 March 2025.

World Economic Forum · World Economic Forum · South Korea

This 12 April 2019 World Economic Forum article reports that South Korea's food waste recycling rate rose from about 2% around 1995 to 95% today, attributing the shift to a 2005 landfill ban and a 2013 pay-as-you-throw system using biodegradable designated bags (costing a typical family of four about $6 a month, with bag sales covering 60% of recycling program operating costs). It cites Seoul's rollout of 6,000 automated weighing bins as reducing waste by 47,000 tons over six years and saving $8.4 million in collection costs.

Glavan M., Schmutz U., Williams S., Corsi S., Monaco F., Kneafsey M., Guzman Rodriguez P.A., Čenič-Istenič M., Pintar M. · Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 36:100-122 · Europe

A study collecting rare economic data (yields, inputs, outputs, gross margins, contribution to household economy) from 180 urban gardeners across Ljubljana, Milan and London. It is one of the few quantitative assessments of the economic performance of urban gardening in Europe.

Jiménez-Antillón, J., Calleja-Amador, C., Romero-Esquivel, L. G. · Resources (MDPI), 7(4):84 · Global (Costa Rica; Japan-origin method)

A field study placing the Kitakyushu-origin 'Takakura' composting method—widely diffused in Surabaya, Indonesia—as small portable boxes in university offices and workplaces in Costa Rica. Processing food waste from 45 staff over six months, it shows that low-cost, citizen/workplace-scale fermentation composting is viable.

Pei Yu · Digital Commons - RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) · United States (New York City)

This research explores waste management in New York City, the world's most wasteful city, seeking ways to bring waste back into the city and connect people with it. Phase I investigates the composition, quantity, and mobility of NYC's waste management, while Phase II focuses on organic waste and the potential of vacant lots in Lower East Manhattan. Phase III proposes a composting park on the East River, engaging residents in various stages of waste management, and aims to connect urban residents to collective waste and the biome's power to transform organic waste into soil, food, and a new life cycle.

Eugene Mohareb, Martin Heller, Paige J. Novak, Benjamin Goldstein, Xavier Fonoll, Lutgarde Raskin · Environmental Research Letters · Global

This literature review provided new insight into the energy implications of scaling up urban agriculture (UA) in cities in high-income countries. It noted that limited data quantify resource demand directly associated with UA systems, indicating the literature is not yet robust enough to make universal claims on benefits. Analyzing existing literature data and cases, the review proposed that energy efficiency gains could be realized by co-locating UA operations with waste streams (e.g., heat, CO2, greywater, wastewater, compost).

Isbat Uzzin Nadhori, Ahmad Ahsan · JAICT · Global

This paper proposes an information technology system to manage the supply chain of perishable products in urban farming. The system aims to increase the availability of fruits and vegetables for urban residents by shortening the distance between farmers and consumers. It enables all supply chain members, including producers, distribution centers, administrators, retailers, and consumers, to access and manage relevant information, thereby facilitating easier and faster planning of planting schedules, product selection, harvest schedules, and request fulfillment.

République française · Légifrance (République française) · France

This is the official text of France's food waste law, promulgated on 11 February 2016. It establishes a priority order for combating food waste: prevention first, then donation or transformation of consumable unsold food, followed by use as animal feed, then composting or energy recovery. Food retailers above a certain size are prohibited from deliberately rendering consumable unsold food unfit for consumption and must offer donation agreements to accredited charities, with a €3,750 fine for deliberate destruction of consumable unsold food.

Brian Wansink, Andrew S. Hanks, David R. Just · Acta Paediatrica · United States (New York)

Using a before/after tray-waste design, this pilot tested whether a cold-climate high school garden could influence vegetable intake without nutrition education. At an upstate New York high school, adding garden-grown greens to the salad bar raised the share of students selecting salad from 2% to 10% and students ate about two-thirds of what they took, though waste rose from 5.56% to 33.33% per serving.

Hegde V.N., Hosur V.S., Rathod S.K., Harsoor P.A., Narayana K.B. · Energy, Sustainability and Society · India

Designs and fabricates an indirect, active-type, low-cost solar dryer from locally available, biodegradable materials. Evaluates drying characteristics and quality using banana, a crop with high post-harvest losses in India.

J.S.C. Wiskerke · · Global

This chapter focuses on urban food supplies and the challenges of managing waste flows from urban households and markets in developing countries. Large amounts of municipal solid waste, human excreta, and wastewater are produced, most of which end up in non-engineered landfills or pollute the urban environment. It is noted that these wastes pollute the urban environment, especially in low-income countries with less developed sanitation infrastructure.

FU Jun-hon · Tianjin Agricultural Sciences · China (Tianjin)

Using a survey method, this article analyzed the situation and problems of the processing industry of origin for six main agricultural products—grain and oil, vegetables, meat, dairy products, aquatic products, and fruit—in Tianjin during the twelfth five-year plan. The paper presents key development tasks and concrete countermeasures for Tianjin's agricultural product origin processing industry.

Selina Dorking, Paige Eisen, Joseph J. Godfrey, Regina López, Steven A. Smith · ScholarWorks - GVSU (Grand Valley State University) · United States

In the Heartside neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, the non-profit Heartside Gleaning Initiative (HGI) has been addressing food insecurity since 2014. During the winter semester of 2015, the "Food Fighters," a team of Grand Valley State University students, collaborated with HGI to tackle the challenges of food waste, food insecurity, and community sustainability. Their efforts resulted in the Heartside Glean Ride mobile food cart plan and a brochure for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes, designed to increase food distribution.