Assessing the Interdependency of Waste By-Products among Selected Enterprises in the Agro-Food Value Chain in Ghana.

Abstract

Industrial food waste is detrimental to the environment, people, and livelihoods. The adverse impacts are projected to worsen amid concerns over waste generation forecasts for 2050. To mitigate this, studies recommend enhancing the practice of Industrial Ecology (IE) where material and energy flows are circulated within and among industries to minimise waste. However, IE studies and adoption in Africa are low, and in Ghana, largely undocumented with few studies focusing on a single firm. Also, policies such as Planting for Food and Jobs aimed at enhancing the production of food crops are yet to address post-harvest challenges, suggesting that food waste would increase should the status quo remain. This research employs the mixed method approach, applying input-output and material flow analyses to investigate by-product reuse and interdependency within and among enterprises and model an Eco-Industrial Network (EIN) for enterprises along the agro-food value chain in Ghana using Stan2web (Stan), a material flow analysis tool. It determined that, although 88% of enterprises sampled have knowledge of interdependencies, only 78.86% practised it at the firm level, while 53.89% practised forms of industrial ecology across enterprises, although in fairly low volumes. The noticeable synergy was between some food, and non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages industries, and waste management companies for the production of compost. Overall, only 7.7% of respondents have identified new useful by-products from other industries, partly attributable to concerns of consumers on by-product reuse, especially in the manufacture or production of food and beverages. However, 25% and 78.8% indicated their willingness to pay for useful by-products and participate in an environmental management system, respectively, as part of efforts to deepen by-product reuse and recycling, underscoring opportunities to deepen by-product exchanges. The mapped synergies revealed that establishing wastewater treatment and steam and/or biogas plants and incentives from regulators would be essential to transitioning toward circularity. This study contributes to literature by documenting IE within and among enterprises in the agro-food value chain in Ghana. Based on the findings the study recommends further investigations into the techno-economic potential for IE, the feasibilities of building and operating wastewater treatment, and steam and/or biogas plants, and the roles of regulatory agencies in deepening IE in Ghana.