Smelly sustainability : the case of the 1st Polish food waste to biogas plant

Abstract: Poland with its long coal and landfilling traditions struggles to reach the European Union goals for both the share of energy produced from renewable sources and management of biodegradable waste. Biogas is proven to be a part of a sustainable solution addressing the problem of organic waste utilisation while providing an opportunity for renewable energy generation as well as for nutrients recycling. This qualitative study aims to explore how Poland can transit towards more plants producing biogas from food waste based on the single case of the city of Zabrze. While being a part of the main Polish coalmining region, this city is on the way to change its profile and to build the first biogas plant in the country using separately collected food waste as a substrate. This study focused on problem-solving uses the multi-level perspective to explore drivers and barriers the technology meets as well as it suggests a number of recommendations to improve the situation. The findings show that the European Union policies on waste and renewable energy are the main drivers; whereas, the barriers are formed by a lack of sufficient support for biogas from food waste and by a lock-in of Technological, User/Market, Policy and Socio-Cultural regimes related to waste, energy and agriculture. Poland and other countries could learn from this study that the abovementioned barriers should be addressed together with a goal of market creation for biogas from food waste technology. This can be done by a reduction of support for the dominating fossil fuel systems combined with a simultaneous creation of a clear and long-term support system for the desired alternative technology.