(178g) Innovative Approaches to Achieving FEW Nexus Goals that can Influence Near-Term & Long-Term Decision Making

The world population is estimated to reach to 9.7B by 2050, resulting in increased demand for resources and increased production of waste. As a result, today’s waste disposal systems and approach to waste management will not be adequate for future applications. Therefore, a systematic approach to sustainable food, energy and water management is needed to meet increased demand for resources and efficient waste utilization systems. Currently, the food, energy and water (FEW) sectors use technologies developed to address the needs of a given sector (i.e. energy, water, food or agriculture), and wastes from each sector are usually managed separately. Production systems underlying these sectors have traditionally treated pollution and waste as externalities that are diluted into the ambient environment, and separate infrastructure systems have consequently been developed with unnecessary inefficiencies that are increasingly problematic. Because neither landfilling nor industrial composting provide ultimate reutilization of organic waste, and neither can achieve both energy and nutrient recovery in one process from organic waste, we need to transition from a “Traditional Linear Waste Disposal” approach to a sustainable “Closed Loop Resource Recovery” approach. In addition, finding efficient and affordable solutions to avoid GHG emission leakages from landfills and composting facilities through the use of Anaerobic Digestion infrastructure will be a key element of a sustainable system for future waste management. Thus, exploring how FEW systems can efficiently be optimized to (1) repurpose or recycle organic waste products, (2) internalize traditional externalities, and (3) integrate wastes with resource inputs across systems, by deploying integrative management strategies is essential. In addition, integrating other relevant disciplines that bring the necessary economic, social and educational perspectives to addressing this problem, will achieve broader impacts across the system.