Report on Kansas City’s Food Waste Reduction Initiative and its Alignment with Sustainable Development Goals

Project Overview: A Public-Private Partnership for Sustainability

The City of Kansas City has launched a new food waste reduction program in partnership with the food recycling company Mill. The initiative was announced at the Southeast Community Center, where Mayor Quinton Lucas symbolically inaugurated the program. This collaboration directly supports the city’s long-term sustainability goals by introducing advanced technology to mitigate landfill waste and promote a circular economy, aligning with several key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

The core of the initiative is a direct response to SDG 12, which aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. Specifically, it targets the reduction of food waste.

• Waste Reduction Target: Kansas City currently sends approximately 400,000 tons of food waste to landfills annually. This project is an intentional strategy to redirect this waste stream.
• Circular Economy Model: As stated by Chief Environmental Officer Jensen Adams, the program is designed to create a “closed loop, a circular economy,” where food scraps are repurposed rather than discarded.
• Innovative Technology: Mill is providing 50 high-tech food recycling bins to be placed in community centers, municipal buildings, and fire stations. The technology’s features include:
  1. Drying and grinding food scraps to reduce moisture content by 80%.
  2. Creating a shelf-stable, compost-ready material.
  3. Processing up to 40 pounds of wet food scraps per cycle.
  4. Measuring and tracking the amount of waste diverted from landfills, providing crucial data for monitoring progress towards sustainability targets.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

The project significantly contributes to SDG 11 by making Kansas City a more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable urban environment. The city is facing the prospect of needing a new landfill within the next decade, a challenge this initiative directly addresses.

• Landfill Diversion: By converting food waste into a reusable resource, the program alleviates pressure on existing landfill capacity and postpones the environmental and financial costs of developing a new one.
• Strategic Investment: Mayor Lucas described the program as a “strategic investment in Kansas City’s future,” aimed at creating a “cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable place.”

SDG 2 & SDG 13: Supporting Zero Hunger and Climate Action

The output of the recycling process creates a positive feedback loop that supports other critical SDGs.

• SDG 2 (Zero Hunger): The processed food grounds are collected by local partners, such as KC Can Compost and Missouri Organic Recycling. This material is then converted into compost for use in local gardens and farms, supporting sustainable agriculture and enhancing local food systems.
• SDG 13 (Climate Action): Diverting organic waste from landfills is a critical climate action. Food decomposition in landfills produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. This program helps reduce methane emissions, contributing to the fight against climate change.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

This initiative exemplifies SDG 17, which emphasizes the importance of collaboration to achieve sustainable development. The project is a multi-stakeholder partnership involving:

• The City of Kansas City (public sector)
• Mill (private technology company)
• KC Can Compost and Missouri Organic Recycling (local businesses)

This collaborative model is essential for implementing innovative solutions and achieving comprehensive sustainability outcomes for the community.

Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

1. SDG 2: Zero Hunger
   • The article mentions that the processed food scraps will be used as compost for “local growers,” “gardens and farms.” This contributes to sustainable agriculture and improving soil quality, which is a component of ensuring food security.
2. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
   • The initiative is a city-led effort by Kansas City to manage its municipal waste more effectively. The mayor’s statement about needing a new landfill within ten years and the goal of making the city “a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable place” directly align with making cities more sustainable.
3. SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
   • The core focus of the article is on reducing food waste. The partnership and technology are aimed at diverting food scraps from landfills and recycling them into a useful product (compost), which directly addresses responsible production and consumption patterns by promoting a “circular economy.”
4. SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
   • The article explicitly describes a “partnership between the city and the food recycling company Mill.” This public-private partnership is a key mechanism for implementing the food waste reduction program.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

1. Target 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that…progressively improve land and soil quality.
   • The program converts food waste into compost to be “used for gardens and farms,” which directly contributes to improving soil quality for local agriculture.
2. Target 11.6: By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.
   • The initiative is a direct action on “municipal…waste management” to “cut back on the city’s food waste that ends of in landfills.” The article notes that food waste is a primary reason the city will soon need a new landfill, highlighting the environmental impact of current waste practices.
3. Target 12.3: By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.
   • The program is designed to tackle food waste at the consumer and institutional level (community centers, municipal buildings) by providing bins to recycle food scraps instead of discarding them.
4. Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.
   • The article details a “food recycling” program that turns waste into compost, embodying the principles of recycling and reuse to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills. The mention of a “circular economy” reinforces this target.
5. Target 17.17: Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships.
   • The project is explicitly defined as a “partnership between the city [Kansas City] and the food recycling company Mill [a private company],” demonstrating this target in action.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

1. Indicator for Target 11.6 & 12.5: Amount of municipal waste diverted from landfills.
   • The article provides a baseline figure: “the city dumps some 400 thousand tons of food waste into landfills every year.” Progress can be measured by the reduction in this number.
2. Indicator for Target 12.3 & 12.5: Amount of food waste recycled.
   • The article states that the Mill device “can also measure garbage that is being converted into compost.” This provides a direct, quantifiable indicator of how much food waste is being successfully recycled through the program.
3. Indicator for Target 17.17: Number and scale of public-private partnerships.
   • The article identifies a specific partnership (City of Kansas City and Mill). The scale is indicated by the initial deployment of “50 of the food recycling bins” to various public locations.
4. Implied Indicator for Target 2.4: Volume of compost produced and utilized.
   • While not explicitly quantified, the amount of compost produced from the recycled food waste and provided to “local growers,” “KC Can Compost,” and “Missouri Organic Recycling” is an implied indicator of the program’s contribution to improving soil quality.

4. Summary of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: kcur.org