Abstract
This study examined the patterns of cooperation between organizations in a food recycling loop in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture in order to identify organizational actions in resolving the factors that limit the development and operation of sustainable food recycling loop. The food recycling loop in this study is composed of supermarkets, compost manufacturers, and local farmers, where compost manufacturers manage compost production using food wastes from the supermarket, local farmers grow vegetables with the compost, and the supermarket sells the vegetables. Based on this analysis, the actions that help to resolve the factors that limit the construction of sustainable food recycling loop are as follows. Firstly, it is necessary that supermarkets do business with compost manufactures under the condition that the expenses of recycling are the same or lower than the charges for disposing general wastes from business activities to their waste destination sites. In addition, supermarkets need to regularly maintain food wastes quality by ensuring that the process of food waste segregation and storage is followed by all employees, including part time workers. Secondly, compost manufacturers need to help local farmers recognize the necessity of applying compost to their field. Moreover, compost manufactures need to manufacture suitable compost according to the soil texture of the region, and it is important to return the compost to farmland via multi-item cultivation throughout the year and provide high quality compost at a low selling price. Thirdly, local farmers using compost need to understand how the compost they use is manufactured and cultivate standardized farm products that supermarkets want to sell. These activities contribute to not only reducing environmental burdens but also yield regional contributions and produce economic effects. From the above results, these activities are factors that enable sustainable food recycling loop.
