Nonceba Ntoyanto-Tyatyantsi, Anthea Amadi-Echendu
Abstract
The United Nations’ second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 12) is to ensure sustainable production and consumption patterns. How can circular economy principles assist in building sustainable food systems? Since food systems inextricably interweave socio-economic business models with physical infrastructure assets, engineered assets deployed throughout the supply chain of food systems should be managed to conform to the precepts of a circular economy and the sustainability paradigm. This paper reviews (i) strategies that can enhance sustainable food systems through circular economy precepts and (ii) supports the second goal of sustainable production.
The study indicates that existing infrastructure and assets must be managed to enable the incorporation of reverse logistics processes to introduce circular economy imperatives into food systems towards the achievement of sustainable development goals. Future work may focus on tracking the supply chain of food systems and examining the challenges of conforming to circular economy precepts and SDG 12.