Opportunities for mainstreaming Resource Recovery and Reuse (RRR)

in developing countries

Business models for RRR

Miriam Otoo and Pay Drechsel

2016 World Water Week, Stockholm31st August, 2016

N and P cycles have to be better managed as we reached our planetary boundaries

Source: https://longfuture.org/graphics/planetary-boundaries-pizza.jpg

• Every year, one third of the world’s food goes to waste along with the valuable nutrients it contains.

• If food waste were a nation, it would rank as the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter after the US and China.

• 250 km3 of water is used to produce this wasted food, equivalent to the annual water discharge of the Volga River.

• The estimated value of global food waste is $1 trillion annually!

• RRR is one of the options to reduce the environmental burden and recover value from what is otherwise lost.

• The same applies to wastewater reuse and resource recovery from fecal sludge.

Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world

• But how do we achieve RRR at scale if we are still struggling with getting treatment plants to work?

• Across the developing world, only 10% of waste water gets treated;

• In India alone, more than 100 m septic tanks and pit latrines have no treatment plant to receive the fecal matter.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Business (e.g., hotel, airport)

Hospital

Military

School

Municipal/Township

Community-level

Region

Num

ber o

f Tre

atm

ent P

lant

s

WASTEWATER AND FAECAL SLUDGE TREATMENT PLANTS

IN GHANA Operational Status

How many of them work ?

Source: Murray & Drechsel, 2011

Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world

Agro-industrial waste - Energy

Wastewater – Water (irrigation, aquaculture)

MSW, Faecal sludge - Nutrients (ag. production)

http://www.waste-enterprisers.com

www.new-ag.info

Reuse is not new . . .

P-Recovery technologies

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Source: Vienna University of Technology

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Why do we not see more of this and at scale?

• Most initiatives aimed at RRR have been characterized in low-income countries by:- High dependence on subsidies; - Limited up-scaling potential.

• Fundamental gaps in:- Business planning and management

strategies, market knowledge;- Economic aspects and institutional linkages;

• Resulting in more failures than successes.

Business in the RRR sector

Customer Segments

Customer Relationships

Value Proposition

Key Activities

Key Resources

Key Partners

Cost Structure

Revenue Streams

Channels

Social and Environmental BenefitsSocial and Environmental Costs

Resource Recovery and Reuse (RRR) is:- a subprogram of the CGIAR Research Program

on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) dedicated to applied research on the safe recovery of water, nutrients and energy from domestic and agro-industrial waste streams.

Resource Recovery and Reuse (RRR)

We aim to create impact through different lines of action research, including:

i. developing and testing scalable RRR business models;ii. assessing and mitigating risks from RRR for public health

and the environment;iii. supporting public and private entities with innovative

approaches for the safe reuse of wastewater and organic waste;

iv. improving rural-urban linkages and resource allocations while minimizing the negative urban footprint on the peri-urban environment.

Institutional linkages and partnership models based on empirical examples are key to our business analysis

Feasibility studies of RRR business models – 10 locations

Peru

Vietnam

India

Uganda

Ghana

Sri Lanka

Bangladesh• City investment plans for identified business models in cities (for public and private entities, donors) and case studies for business schools.

Other current activities• Lead implementer of business models;• Advising international finance institutions

in selecting and implementing business model;

• Policy revisions towards RRR.

•Training workshops for existing and new entrepreneurs, e.g. from cash flow to business modeling;

•MOOC on RRR business models; •Lessons feed into business school curricula;•Business incubation through strategic partnerships.

From Research to Capacity building(partners welcome!)

• Development of DSS based on feasibility studies and analysed business models;

• Action research on reuse guidelines and policy recommendations;

• Compost valorization trials (from faecal sludge to a safe fertilizer for different crops and soils);

• Monitoring business plan implementation;• Investment climate studies.

On-going & Future Work

RRR Series of Applied Research

RRR Books

Thank You.

This CGIAR sub-program on RRR works closely with the RUAF Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations University (UNU), and many national and international partners across the globe.