RUNRES is a project that addresses the nutrient gradient between urban and rural areas. Broadly speaking, nutrient mining occurs in agricultural areas due to increased food production, while nutrients are accumulated in urban areas where food is consumed.
The main objective of RUNRES is to co-design, test, implement and scale safe, cost-efficient, and socially acceptable innovations to valorize urban and rural waste resources and improve the circular economy related to food and agriculture.
Numerous waste streams (green, food, human) currently exist that are not being captured and recycled, especially in urban environments. The approach of RUNRES consists in capturing waste streams and retrieving nutrients into different products. The innovations co-developed in Phase 1 (2019-2023) address three aspects of circular bio-economy:
Organic waste collected from urban centres of the city regions, transported and processed into compost, have the capacity to provide critically needed organic soil inputs for farmers in rural areas.
By recovering organic waste and cassava peels, RUNRES aims to privide high quality animal products. Our focus is:
The use of organic and human waste by farmers poses a number of risks due to possible pathogen and pollutant accumulation in the products. Therefore, we set up a quality assurance programme aiming to measure the following parameters to guarantee the quality of the products: the agronomic parameters, the level of pathogens, for example Escherichia coli or Helminths’ eggs, and the amount of heavy metals.
RUNRES aims to set a key step in the transformation towards a circular agriculture and waste management, operating in four peri-urban localities of four different countries across Africa:
Rwanda’s livestock sector is growing steadily, driven by urbanization and demand for animal protein. At the same time, the already high cost of animal feed continues to rise due to the sharp increase in transport costs in recent years, as the country relies heavily on imports for raw materials. As a response to these challenges the RUNRES project initiated and tested Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) as an alternative source of protein, and High Quality Cassava Peel (HQCP) flour as a carbohydrate-rich animal feed.
In Arba Minch, more than fifty percent of the households do not use waste collection services and the vast majority of organic waste is not utilized. Although policies exist that support municipal solid waste management, these are not well aligned with practice (private sector). The two innovations in Arba Minch aimed to close the nutrient cycle by collecting and composting organic household waste and processing bananas into a nutrient-rich flour.
The continued removal of nutrients through the production of food consumed elsewhere is depleting the fertility of agricultural land. At the same time, municipalities are struggling to dispose of sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants, while many households are not even connected to a sewage system, posing health and environmental risks. RUNRES South Africa has tackled these problems with two innovations: co-composting of green waste and wastewater residues, and the provision of toilet systems in underserved areas that include nutrient recovery (effluent and urine).
The city of Bukavu, with a population of more than 1.6 million, faces major sanitation challenges, including inadequate waste management infrastructure. Around 900 tonnes of solid household waste, most of which is organic, is generated every day. More than ninety percent of this waste is disposed of on the streets and in the sewers, eventually ending up in Lake Kivu. Composting of organic waste is a promising approach to tackle the sanitation and solid waste problem in Bukavu, while also addressing the declining soil fertility of agricultural land in rural areas.
19.05.2025
An international project working alongside communities to co-design safe, cost-effective and socially acceptable waste management and sanitation innovations to establish […]
19.05.2025
An international project aimed at establishing a circular economy for resilient city region food systems in South Africa, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda held one of three international start-up meetings between various stakeholders in Pietermaritzburg.
09.04.2025
CBEN monthly calls had Sharon Mireri, a postdoctoral scientist involved in the RUNRES Project, offer an enlightening overview of the project’s progress and its innovative contributions to the circular economy.
27.02.2025
The Project Manager, Mr. Abayneh Feyso, provided a comprehensive overview of the achievements and challenges encountered during the first phase.
21.01.2025
The RUNRES team reports on a successful innovation for improving sanitation systems in South Africa primary schools.
04.07.2024
The Flagship Project Enhancing Resilience in Food Systems seeks to directly contribute to food systems resilience by supporting decision-making in practice through stakeholder participation in case studies and academic education.
The RUNRES project, aims to set a key step in the transformation towards a circular and more sustainable agriculture and waste management. RUNRES will improve the resilience of food systems in four different rural-urban regions across Africa: DR Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda and South Africa.
While the initial focus is to be on upscaling the innovations that have been evaluated as suitable for upscaling, we aim in parallel at replicating these innovations in different places with new actors. This will take place through public-private partnerships and through the co-development of business plans with the new actors, with the aim of leveraging financial resources from existing business development institutions.
The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and entails two main phases: a piloting phase (2019–23) and a scaling-up phase (2023–27).
“As a single mother, this job at MAGGOT farm allows me to support my mother, my brother and my one-year-old daughter. Even though I do not enjoy the smell of this grinded organic waste, I am still happy to come to work every day and interact with my colleagues. I hope that someday I can save enough money to buy a sewing machine. My dream is to become a tailor.”
Julienne Uwase, Kamonyi, Rwanda
