Recapturing value from waste for developing green food value chains

The foundations of the research conducted rest in the realms of the green economy, the circulareconomy and green growth. It considers in particular green food value chain development in rural,peri-urban and urban bottom-of-the pyramid (BOP) contexts. The BOP refers to the circa four (4)billion people of the world population earning between US$1 and US$5 per day and of which about1.8 billion of these people live in urban slums. Many of the people who live in such BOP contextsearn their livelihoods from participating in food value chain activities with their know-how and theavailable resources they can access and use. In such frugal contexts, work is often devoted to not onlyproducing and distributing food, but also to the identification, collection, re-using and recycling(valorisation) of waste that food value chains can generate. It is in this context of recapturingwhatever value may be left in waste, which is the focus of this article: it considers how suchrecapturing of value from waste can contribute to developing greener food value chains and thuscontribute to the reduction of the food waste and consequently the carbon foot prints of food valuechains. The article provides a step-by-step guideline for field practitioners in how to tacklerecapturing value from waste. The paper derives primarily from field-based researches. In 2013 aninitial field research was conducted in the Tanzania, which was then followed by an extensiveliterature research and review. The preliminary findings were then supplemented by further fieldresearch conducted in Kenya, Tunisia, Egypt and Tanzania in 2014. In 2015 country-based case studyresearches were conducted in Iran, Trinidad and Tobago and Peru and in 2016 and 2017 anotherextensive literature review was conducted. Further field research was conducted in Zambia in 2016and 2017.