The Feedback Loop

Long description

Our project starts from the observation that organic waste (food scraps, leftovers) in Amsterdam restaurants ends up in the garbage rather than being used as a valuable resource. There is an efficient infrastructure to get products from farm to kitchen, but the infrastructure to get organic waste back to farms, in the form of compost, where it can be used as a valuable resource to improve soil health is lacking.   In order to create this infrastructure we build upon the simple idea that a delivery truck is on average always half full. As trucks start their routes to deliver crates filled with products to restaurants, they empty their cargo space during the day and return to HQ with an empty cargo space. We use this empty space to bring organic waste from restaurants back to farms without the need nor cost of additional logistics. We do so by supplying restaurants with compost bags that fit into the crates used by suppliers. In this way organic waste can be collected in compost bags in restaurants after which the supplier can transport it to farms in the supply chain.   With this project we will demonstrate that supply chains in the food industry can be transformed into circular systems using existing components. Also, we will generate awareness around the possibility of applying the underlying philosophy – using unutilized logistical capacity to create circular systems – of our project to many. 

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