Sustainable Livelihoods Through Reduced Plastic Waste: Collaborative Community-based Sustainability-oriented Innovation
Date
Authors
Cleveland, D
Joseph, F
Little, V
Nayak, R
Supervisor
Item type
Chapter in Book
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Abstract
This chapter describes a project that aims to support community livelihoods and to reduce plastic use and food waste, through engaging with entrepreneurial communities of practice in biomaterials innovation. Vietnam, the site of the study, has problems with plastic pollution, with food waste, and with supporting sustainable community livelihoods. To address these problems, the research team is engaged in a process of collaborative discovery with local craft village communities and social enterprises. Working with local entrepreneur-makers and their communities, the project investigates how biomaterials might be produced from waste food (e.g., tea, fruit), and transformed into commercializable products for consumer markets. The technology platform is bacterial cellulose, which can be grown using local waste food, using minimal water and energy resources. We have researched and developed this platform through an initial research project (Materialfutures.org). Five illustrative cases demonstrate how biomaterials can be produced and commercialized, drawing on community resources. Fieldwork in two villages provided insights into traditional material production techniques. The work of four social enterprises provides insights into how project outputs might be commercialized. Drawing on this preliminary work, the chapter outlines the plan for current research engaging selected craft village communities in a participatory action research project. Throughout, processes of collective, co-produced learning and experimentation provide a foil to conventional extractive approaches to knowledge production. Project outcomes are both practical and theoretical. Sustainable livelihoods are supported through community skill and relationship building, and at the same time, the knowledge produced contributes to both ecopreneurship and sustainability-oriented innovation literature.Description
Keywords
4802 Environmental and Resources Law, 48 Law and Legal Studies, 44 Human Society, 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
Source
In: Leal Filho, W., Barbir, J., Nguyen, N.H., Saborowski, R. (eds) Innovative Approaches to Handle Plastic Waste and Foster Bio-based Plastics Production. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. Online ISBN
978-3-031-84959-6. pp 219–235
Publisher's version
Rights statement
This is the Author's Accepted Manuscript of a chapter in Innovative Approaches to Handle Plastic Waste and Foster Bio-based Plastics Production © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025. Authors whose book or chapter is accepted for non-OA publication are permitted to self-archive a portion of the accepted manuscript (AM) on their own personal website, and/or in their funder or institutional repositories, for public release after an embargo period (12 months). The publisher's version is available at doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-84959-6_11