Reducing waste and recycling leftovers for animal feed
Type de pratique Reuse for feed
Nom de la pratique Reducing waste and recycling leftovers for animal feed
Nom de l’acteur principal Japan government and Agri Gaia System
Type d’acteur(s) Autorités publiques, Société
Pays Japan
Etape de mise en œuvre Consommation, Exploitation
Année de mise en œuvre 2007
Opérations déjà accomplies/en cours Food waste used to be well utilized as animal feed in Japan. However, it has declined due
to the introduction of commercial concentrate feed and high performance exotic breeds, a
strategy seeking more efficient production, and due to a change in lifestyle. While the food
industry’s by-products that do not fluctuate in quality and quantity are being used as a
part of dried concentrate feed, or total mixed rations, the quality of most food waste fluctuates
considerably and its safety is of concern. Consequently, its use as animal feed is limited
and, as a result, wastes have been incinerated and put into landfill. This process induces
emissions of GHGs and toxic substances such as dioxin and heavy metals. Each year, Japan
food waste totals 20 million tonnes, of which 3 percent is used for fertilizer and 5 percent
for feed. Moreover, self-sufficiency of food in Japan is only 40 percent. The very low selfsufficiency
of animal feed (only 20 percent) is one of the major reasons for this high percentage
and the poorly balanced feed supply makes the livestock sector unsustainable.
In order to alleviate the environmental burden of treating food waste and to reduce Japan’s
dependency on imported feedstuff, in 2001, the government adopted the Law for Promotion
to Recover and Utilize Recyclable Food Resources (so called Food Recycling Law), which was
revised in 2007. This provides mandatory recycling targets for food-related businesses (e.g.
85 percent for food manufacturers) and encourages them to reuse their food wastage as
raw material for animal feed or fertilizer. The law’s guidelines state: “Since it is the most
effective way to utilize the nutrition or calorific value of the recycled food, besides contributing
to [Japan’s] self-sufficiency ratio for feed, it is important to make processing feed
[from food waste] a priority.” While pig farmers in other parts of the world are being bankrupt
by the high cost of animal feed, Japan’s pig farmers are being given a cheap, environmentally-
friendly alternative. Businesses are now more aware of the great amount of food
they discard, as well as of the economic and environmental advantages of reusing food for
feeding purposes. In fact, the cost of recycled animal feed is about 50 percent lower than
conventionally produced feed.
Résultats et impacts Inspired by this new law and frustrated with dumping loads of discarded food every day, a
former garbage truck driver, started a food recycling company, Agri Gaia System, Japan's
largest maker of recycled animal feed. His drivers cart truckloads of rice balls, sandwiches
and milk discarded by over 2 thousands 7-Eleven stores to his factory on the outskirts of
Tokyo, where the food scraps are turned into dry and liquid animal feed for pigs and chickens.
The feed is not used for cattle or sheep because of strict health regulations that were
imposed to prevent mad cow disease. Materials not suitable for animal feed are composted
or processed into methane gas to be used as supplementary fuel for the mill. The Agri Gaia
System plant has a daily processing capacity of 255 tonnes which has only a fraction (oneseventh)
of the CO2 emissions of the 200-tonne incineration plant that had burned the
food waste.