Journal ArticleDOI
Life cycle assessment of supermarket food waste
TLDR
In this paper, the impacts of food waste at a supermarket in Sweden were analyzed over a period of one year, and the environmental impacts of waste that were generated regularly and in large amounts were assessed, and alternative waste management practices were suggested.Abstract:
Retail is an important actor regarding waste throughout the entire food supply chain. Although it produces lower amounts of waste compared to other steps in the food value chain, such as households and agriculture, it has a significant influence on the supply chain, including both suppliers in the upstream processes and consumers in the downstream. The research presented in this contribution analyses the impacts of food waste at a supermarket in Sweden. In addition to shedding light on which waste fractions have the largest environmental impacts and what part of the waste life cycle is responsible for the majority of the impacts, the results provide information to support development of strategies and actions to reduce of the supermarket’s environmental footprint. Therefore, the food waste was categorised and quantified over the period of one year, the environmental impacts of waste that were generated regularly and in large amounts were assessed, and alternative waste management practices were suggested. The research revealed the importance of not only measuring the food waste in terms of mass, but also in terms of environmental impacts and economic costs. The results show that meat and bread waste contributes the most to the environmental footprint of the supermarket. Since bread is a large fraction of the food waste for many Swedish supermarkets, this is a key item for actions aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of supermarkets. Separation of waste packaging from its food content at the source and the use of bread as animal feed were investigated as alternative waste treatment routes and the results show that both have the potential to lead to a reduction in the carbon footprint of the supermarket.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Environmental impacts of food waste in Europe.
TL;DR: The importance of food waste prevention is underlined by the results of this study, as most of the impacts originate from the production step, and those impacts can be avoided as less food needs to be produced.
Journal ArticleDOI
Food waste to biochars through pyrolysis: A review
TL;DR: In this article, the potential opportunities for food waste pyrolysis focusing on the conversion of food waste to biochar products were evaluated. But the authors did not consider the food waste composition and the process conditions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Postharvest losses of fruit and vegetables during retail and in consumers’ homes: Quantifications, causes, and means of prevention
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors encourage postharvest researchers to become more engaged with logistics and food supply-chain operations, and to conduct multidisciplinary research incorporating consumer behavior studies into post-harvest research.
Journal ArticleDOI
Environmental impacts of food waste: Learnings and challenges from a case study on UK.
TL;DR: This study applies a bottom-up life cycle assessment method to quantify the environmental impacts of the avoidable food waste generated by four sectors of the food supply chain in United Kingdom, namely processing, wholesale and retail, food service, and households.
References
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