Aditi Saxena

The FOOD WASTE [ecological] EXCHANGE AGENCY [FWEEA]

The FOOD WASTE [ecological] EXCHANGE AGENCY (FWEEA) is a demonstrative educational project which aims to initiate a pilot food waste management scheme in a suburb in northwest Paris. Its focus is on reducing the amount of organic food waste from households and edible surplus food generated by supermarkets, farms, allotments and community gardens. Through the participation of the local community, the scheme will reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill by proposing initiatives such as composting, cooking, redistribution and recycling.

The FWEEA in relation to RURBAN

The project relates to RURBAN since it is based on the cradle-to-cradle concept which is related to the life cycles of systems. The concept proposes that all systems (biological or technical) should be designed in a way to allow them to be reused in new cycles when they reach the end of their lives. Historically the predominance of biological waste management systems meant there was less waste generated but now with the obsession over new and cheaper products, little thought is given to reuse and waste production is ever increasing.

The FWEEA re-introduces the biological no waste cycles within current living systems. It applies the cradle-to-cradle ‘no waste’ cyclical processes found in the rural setting (where nothing is wasted and any waste is reused) to a denser urban location, thus bringing the RUR[AL] closer to the [UR]BAN in its definition of RURBAN. The FWEEA encourages the suburban setting to learn from the simpler biological rural processes, rather than the technological, wasteful systems found within the city. Instead of wasting food it defines new ways of ‘re-using’ it and this is at the heart of the FWEEA agenda.

Project programme & agenda

The FWEEA addresses the ‘the three ecologies’; social, mental and environmental, as defined by Felix Guattari. The main objective of the project is environmental since it aims to reduce the amount of food waste which is sent to landfill from Stade. This is done by creating cyclical processes for three types of food waste. Organic waste is composted, edible ‘waste’ is either cooked and sold or repackaged and redistributed, and paper waste is recycled to produce products such as the waste collection boxes.

The project addresses mental ecology by creating a demonstrative facility which aims to encourage new ways of dealing with food waste. Although it is focussed on school children, the facility makes open and visible the process of food waste management to allow all types of people to gain an understanding of the ecological ways of dealing with food waste.
The social ecology is addressed by integrating people of different ages, backgrounds and cultures and also by empowering them by allowing them to manage and maintain the facility.

The project works with existing waste management systems within Stade, but expands the network to provide those facilities that do not yet exist in the area, such as organic food waste collection. The whole concept behind the FWEEA is to provide a sustainable, cyclical food waste management system which differs from existing predominant waste management systems.

flickr:4817320663

-

flickr:4817943198

-

flickr:4817971178

-

flickr:4820633564

-

flickr:4817929372

-

flickr:4821024738

-

flickr:4817256937

-

flickr:4817349517
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License