International Industrial Ecology Day 2022
9:00 - 10:00 (PST) - Closing the Loop: Opportunities to Advance the Circularity of Organic Waste (18:00 UTC)
Register here
This panel will include an introduction to California’s Senate Bill 1383, recent legislation that mandates 75% organic waste diversion from landfills and 20% recovery of edible wasted food by 2025. The invited panel of student researchers will then present “flash talks” on their work related to managing organic waste as well as treated organic waste prodcuts (e.g. digestate, compost) from a circular economy perspective.
9:00-9:10 am GMT: Ned Spang, Associate Professor, Food Science & Technology, University of California – Davis (UC Davis), “An introduction to California’s SB 1383: A law to advance organic waste diversion”
9:10-9:17 am PST: Lauren Mabe, Ph.D. Student, UC Davis, “Understanding the landscape of urban food waste and its implications for the siting and scaling of anaerobic digestion systems”
9:17-9:24 am PST: Catherine Rowen, M.A. student, UC Davis, “The adoption small-scale anaerobic digestion technology: A social science perspective”
9:24-9:31 am PST: Diana C. Rodríguez Alberto, Ph.D. Candidate, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), “Alternatives for management and utilization of anaerobic digestate”
9:31-9:38 am PST: Shradha Shrestha, “Geospatial modeling of the ecological impact of food waste digestate storage and disposal”
9:38-9:45 am PST: Jake Hawes, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Michigan, “The potential for urban gardens as a sink for local organic waste”
9:45-10:00 am PST: Q&A Session
Short Bios of Presenters and Moderators
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Edward “Ned” Spang, Associate Professor, Food Science & Technology, UC Davis Dr. Spang’s research focuses on characterizing and optimizing the efficiency of linked food, energy, and water resource systems. His recent work has focused specifically on the topic of food loss and waste across the entire food supply chain, including estimating on-farm food losses, repurposing food processing byproducts, and assessing the potential for community-scale anaerobic digestion systems. To further address this interdisciplinary issue, Dr. Spang has worked to establish the Food Loss and Waste Collaborative – a collection of roughly 100 faculty, students, and staff at UC Davis.
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Lauren Mabe, Ph.D. Student, Geography, UC Davis Lauren’s research focuses on sustainable organic waste management in California with an emphasis in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), political economy, and environmental justice. Her recent research addresses the scale and siting of anaerobic digestion systems to treat food waste in Los Angeles County (see publication here).
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Catherine Rowen, Ph.D. Student, Community Development, UC Davis; Sustainability, RIT Catherine is jointly enrolled in the UC Davis Community Development Graduate Group and Rochester Institute of Technology’s Sustainability PhD program. She received a degree in Archaeology and Environmental Studies from Bryn Mawr College in 2018, where her interest in food systems, distributed energy, and anaerobic digestion began. After a few years working in mission-driven urban farming and organic waste recycling, she went back to school—completing a Masters in Sustainable Systems at RIT. She continues to work with RIT Professor Callie Babbitt and the NSF RECIPES research network investigating small scale food waste digestion projects in the US. |
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Diana Rodriguez Alberto, Ph.D. Candidate, Golisano Institute for Sustainability, RIT Diana focuses her research on technological innovations for food waste management. She is originally from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where she pursued her bachelor’s in chemistry at the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo. She joined RIT in 2015 for a Master’s in Science in Chemistry and then decided to continue her graduate studies by joining the Sustainability PhD program. During her time as a graduate student, she has enjoyed mentoring students from high school, undergraduate and graduate level.
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Shradha Shrestha, Geographic Information System (GIS) Specialist, American Farmland Trust Shradha Shrestha (she/her/hers) is a geospatial enthusiast working around environmental problems, especially streams, agriculture, and waste disposal. While a M.S. Graduate Student at RIT, she worked on identifying the ecological impact of food waste-based byproducts of anaerobic digestion. Currently, she is a Geographic Information System (GIS) specialist at American Farmland Trust, where she leads the management and continuing development of the protected agricultural lands database (PALD). She conducts spatial data analysis and delivers mapping products across the organization. She enjoys trekking and running during her spare hours. |
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Jason “Jake” Hawes, Ph.D. Student, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan Jake Hawes is a member of the Urban Sustainability Research Group with Dr. Joshua Newell, studying the role of urban agriculture in future cities. Integrating lenses from industrial ecology, geography, and spatial planning, Hawes’ work will unpack the sustainability, resilience, and justice synergies and tradeoffs implicit in urban agriculture futures. Hawes received a BS in Environmental and Ecological Engineering and MS in Natural Resources Social Science, both from Purdue University. He can be found online at https://jkhawes.com and via email at jkhawes@umich.edu. |