Theme 2: Urban Waste Material Recycling

The objective of Theme 2 is to develop multi-stage valorization paths that efficiently recycle food and plant waste into the food supply chain and generate opportunities for start-ups and investment.

Modern food production and supply chains are often based on through-flow rather than recirculation of mineral nutritional elements, energy, and water. Resulting scarcity of natural resources and environmental pollution may become major threats to global food security unless efficient ways for recycling of organic waste materials into agricultural food production are developed and implemented. Abu Dhabi is producing around 1.3 Mio t of agricultural waste, and around 500.000 t of food waste annually. Recycling of organic waste materials is currently largely based on composting, which can return nutritional elements to agricultural soils, but leaves the energy and nutritional value organic residues contain unused. The development of more efficient valorization strategies for organic waste materials would not only save resources but also generate business opportunities as a circular economy evolves. Multi-level valorization strategies involving a sequence of different consecutive recycling procedures are still in their infancy in most parts of the world. The implementation of subthemes outlined in the table below would provide Abu Dhabi with the technologies and know-how to pioneer in this field. ​

Subthemes​​