Exploring the green waste management problem in food supply chains: A circular economy context

Food waste management is a growing environmental and economic issue for a developing country like India. This exploratory paper aims to prioritize key practices as "criteria" for food supply chains that lead to food waste reduction to ensure green waste management. Twenty-five criteria from the existing literature and expert inputs were assessed to resolve food waste reduction issues in food supply chains, especially in the agricultural sectors. The study identifies and ranks the intensities of each of the listed criteria. In the study, the Best-Worst Method, a multi-criteria decision-making approach, is applied. According to the findings, waste prevention at the earlier stages of food supply chains is given more priority compared to food waste minimization and treatment at the later stages. Hence, the study concludes "skill and training" as the highest ranked criteria, followed by "pro-tection and infrastructure." Further, the study infers that understanding the individual intensities of criteria within a food supply chain can affect waste generation at each level, having a significant impact on waste reduction. The data in this research was evaluated in the Indian context.