Effective circular strategies for eco-friendly urban agriculture

Effective circular strategies for eco-friendly urban agriculture

Effective circular strategies for eco-friendly urban agriculture
Policy Brief
Author
Martí Rufí Salís
Anna Petit-Boix
Sina Leipold
Publication Date
November, 2021
Country
Germany
Language for original content
Scope

Urban agriculture comes with its own share of environmental impacts. Circular strategies promise to reduce these impacts, but not all strategies are resource efficient and environmentally effective.

This paper finds that the most eco-friendly and circular strategies for urban agriculture, taking a Mediterranean tomato crop as a case study, include:

  • Struvite (phosphate mineral recovered from wastewater treatment) instead of non-renewable phosphate fertiliser to conserve freshwater
  • Recycled steel and materials for urban agricultural infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions, toxicity and freshwater pollution
  • Closed-loop irrigation to minimise ocean and freshwater pollution. However, if new infrastructure is required, it could lead to an increase in carbon emissions.