At the beginning of December, the final meeting of this year's "Dialogue with Science" discussion series took place, with more than 30 participants. Since next year, a nationwide separate collection system for biowaste will be implemented in Latvia, the topic of the discussion was food and biological waste. Such regular meetings help establish communication with universities and strengthen mutual awareness of current issues among the involved parties.
At the start of the meeting, participants were informed about the latest developments in the LIFE Waste to Resources IP project and the activity "Capacity Building for Dialogue with Science." One of the key updates is the development of a strategy for the dialogue with science, and another development is the initiation of work on the creation of the regulations for the student scientific research competition. The competition is planned to be announced at the beginning of 2024, with student research works to be received and evaluated by the end of May. The topic of the scientific research competition is food and biological waste.
The meeting featured a presentation by Imants Plūme, a lecturer at the University of Life Sciences and Technology of Latvia, who shared research on how food and agricultural waste is used for biogas and fertilizer production. The goal of the presentation was to provide insight into the issues associated with the traditional recycling of food and agricultural waste and to offer potential solutions for managing these wastes, promoting their rational management, environmental protection, and climate-neutral development.
The discussion transitioned from academic knowledge to practical data obtained from various studies. Rūta Bendere from the Latvian Waste Management Association shared data and results achieved in the separate collection of food and biological waste within the LIFE Waste to Resources IP project. She also confirmed that a new piece of equipment, an automatic composter, will soon be installed at the “Kaudzītes” waste disposal site in the Gulbene region, where separately collected biological and food waste from the municipalities of Gulbene, Alūksne, and Balvi will be composted.
Since food waste currently constitutes a large portion of the total waste in Latvia, it must be acknowledged that food waste in educational institutions is an issue that needs to be addressed. Unfinished food on a plate not only creates waste but also wastes the resources needed to grow and transport the food to the consumer. Therefore, Ingrīda Millere, a representative of the Riga City Council, shared data from the study "How much food is thrown away in Riga schools," conducted this year as part of the “Innovative Strategies in Public Catering” project.
Maryna Zhylina, a PhD candidate from the Institute of Agroresources and Economics at the Riga Technical University, then presented in simple terms the possibilities for soil improvement and the granulation of bio-waste—how these practices could be applied in practice.
The discussion series concluded with a presentation by Vineta Kleinberga, a researcher from Riga Stradiņš University, who shared challenges related to communication issues regarding food and biological waste in Latvian society. She analyzed the socio-economic context of food waste generation in Latvian society and in food production and distribution companies, emphasizing the importance of evaluating the potential significance of preventing food waste for Latvia's economy. One of the major communication challenges is that residents still fail to recognize the amount of waste generated by households and lack knowledge about what constitutes food waste and how to measure it accurately.
We thank everyone for their participation and look forward to meeting again next year! The valuable presentations in Latvian can be found here:
1. LIFE IP projekta «No atkritumiem uz resursiem» aktualitātes;
2. Pārtikas un lauksaimniecības atlikumu izmantošana biogāzes un mēslojuma ražošanai;
3. Pilotprojekti pārtikas un bioloģisko atkritumu šķirošanā LIFE projekta ietvaros;
4. Pētījums “Cik pārtikas izmet Rīgas skolās” projektā “Inovatīvas stratēģijas sabiedriskajā ēdināšanā”;
5. Augsnes ielabošana un bioatkritumu granulācija;
6. Pārtikas un bioloģiskie atkritumi – komunikācijas izaicinājumi.
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