NSF2026: Convergence Around a Sustainable World Without Waste

Every year, 10 million tons of plastic waste enter the oceans and 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted. This project will contribute to meeting such challenges by working toward a world without waste. It will identify the fundamental research needs and opportunities for achieving such a future that is also economically feasible, socially desirable, and environmentally viable. To achieve these goals, a series of workshops will held to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders across many disciplines from academia, industry, government and non-governmental organizations. Education curricula will be developed for a Masters program that will train students to work toward achieving a world without waste. For continuing research growth toward a sustainable world without waste beyond the duration of this project, a new section of a research society will organize regular conferences on this topic. This project will organize workshops with the overarching goal of examining the fundamental drivers underpinning the pressing challenge of spiraling global waste and resource consumption through the lens of convergence. An important realization from current efforts is that while engineering needs to play an important role by developing relevant technologies, other disciplines such as economics, social sciences, and environmental science are also essential for understanding and developing appropriate markets and societal incentives. Various disciplines need to forge links and transcend their traditional boundaries to move toward deeply convergent research approaches. In this project, multidisciplinary research teams will explore integration of knowledge, methods, models, and data necessary for creating and evaluating potential solutions. Co-creation of knowledge with stakeholder input will inform novel business models, engagement approaches, policy options, and innovative technical and science-based advances toward a sustainable world without waste. The proposed workshops will develop a framework for advancing convergent research and scholarship on the NSF big idea "World Without Waste." A new section will be established as a part of the International Society for Industrial Ecology to foster growth toward meeting these challenges. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.