Research Identifies New Uses for Yesterday's Waste

Repurposing and reusing food, energy and water to sustain robust and resilient landscapes is being documented in a user-friendly tool to help food processors, dairies, farmers and others use the waste of other industries to benefit their own.

A nearly $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation allows UI researchers in the Center for Resilient Communities (CRC) to map these activities across the landscape and across industries. The goal is to identify points where pairing inputs of one industry to outputs of another could benefit all involved — for example, finding ways to reuse water from aquaculture to help irrigate fields.

"We are gathering data and gleaning information from our industry partners who  are creating and potentially using the materials we identify. They live in the system, so they provide us with the realistic possibilities," said Andrew Kliskey, a professor in the College of Natural Resources and CRC co-director with Lilian Alessa, professor in the College of Art and Architecture.