Food Waste Minimization and Circularity

This policy brief by the Stockholm Environment Institute argues for the integration of circular bioeconomy principles and behavioral insights to minimize food loss and waste, particularly within urban food systems, to enhance food security and support Sustainable Development Goals 11 and 12.

• Food loss and waste currently account for approximately 30% of global production. To address this, the brief argues that strategies should move beyond technical solutions and best practices to prioritize behavioral change, institutional capacities, and planning to create incentives for waste minimization.
• The brief proposes a framework that combines the circularity of food systems with behavioral insights, specifically highlighting the ability of city-regional urban and peri-urban farming systems to absorb waste. This approach is presented as a way to meet urban food demand and reduce pressure on urban waste services without requiring major capital investment, thereby supporting SDG 11 and 12.
• Adopting a circular bioeconomy approach could result in annual benefits of US$ 2.7 trillion by 2050. These benefits include the prevention of degradation for 15 million hectares of arable land and a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2022). Food Waste Minimization and Circularity. https://www.sei.org/publications/food-waste-minimization-circularity/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Food Waste Minimization and Circularity. 2022. https://www.sei.org/publications/food-waste-minimization-circularity/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Food Waste Minimization and Circularity |date=9 September 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/food-waste-minimization-circularity/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2022food, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Food Waste Minimization and Circularity}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/food-waste-minimization-circularity/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }