A framework for informing context-sensitive sustainable management of organic waste in rural agricultural regions

Resource recovery can provide opportunities to mitigate the negative impacts of conventional organic waste management such as landfilling to the environment, economy, and society in rural agricultural regions. However, region-specific assessment of such opportunities can be challenging due to lack of data, limited economic resources, and inadequate policy support to meet community needs. Therefore, we developed a framework utilizing open-source data and methods informed by community engagement to assist stakeholders in rural agricultural regions in considering strategies to recover resources from organic waste. The framework was applied in Hardy County (one of the largest agricultural regions in rural West Virginia) to compare the sustainability of current management practices (landfilling of sewage sludge and organic municipal solid waste such as food and yard waste, land application of sewage sludge and poultry litter, and transportation of poultry litter out of watershed) with different anaerobic digestion scenarios. The results indicated that co-digesting alum-treated poultry litter with organic municipal solid waste and sewage sludge would result in the most sustainable organic waste management under stakeholder-preferred weighting of environmental (global warming and eutrophication potential), economic (annual worth), and social (potential to benefit vulnerable households) factors. Interestingly, the current management practices received the second-highest score. The results were further utilized to develop recommendations for relevant policies related to nutrient management and decarbonization. Overall, the framework can be a useful tool for rural agricultural regions to promote sustainable organic waste management.