Background to the Synergors Project, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford.

There are 10 million tonnes of food waste and 2.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste generated in the UK every year. The current technologies and practices in the UK in treating and disposing these organic wastes are not able to cope with the increase in waste generation due to rapid urbanisation. Conventional industrial practices take the resources from finite resources such as fossil fuels, turn them into products that we use for transport fuels, electricity, commodity chemicals, plastic bags, and dispose all the residues to landfill after processing. If these residues can be reused in the same manufacturing plant or sent it to another nearby processing plant, the imbalance in supply and demand of resources in the industry can easily be resolved. A holistic thinking of the needs and constraints in the urban area, industrial systems, waste management systems and ecosystems are crucial in addressing the complex problem effectively.