From Facility-Siting Conflict to Farmer-Centered Coordination

Food-waste composting is often discussed as a technical recycling solution, but in practice it succeeds or fails through governance. This article examines, from a focal-organization case perspective, how a food-waste composting partnership formed and stabilized in Ehime Prefecture, Japan, despite early local opposition to the siting of a composting facility. Drawing on a qualitative case study based on interviews with the recycling company that initiated the project and on documentary sources, the analysis traces the partnership from the planning and permitting stage (2002–2006) through institutionalization and scaling (2007–2021). The analysis identifies two intermediary functions that proved decisive: aligning stakeholder interests by framing composting in terms of agricultural revitalization and fairer burden sharing, and maintaining relatively neutral forums for repeated face-to-face dialogue, eventually through a farmer-centered council. The case also shows that intermediary roles changed over time, moving from brokerage and persuasion toward support for farmer-centered coordination, and on that basis the article offers design principles for circular food systems.