Life cycle assessment on food waste and its application in China

2017 3rd International Conference on Environmental Science and Material Application

生态环境科学;材料科学

Gao, Si^1,4 ; Bao, Jingling^2 ; Liu, Xiaojie^3 ; Stenmarck, Asa^4

School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin

300401, China^1

Tianjin Academy of Environmental Sciences, Tianjin

300191, China^2

Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing

100101, China^3

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Stockholm

10031, Sweden^4

关键词: Environmental influences;    Food and agriculture organizations;    Global warming potential;    Life Cycle Assessment (LCA);    Recycling methods;    Social influence;    Standardized methods;    Storage and transportations;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/108/4/042037/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1755-1315/108/4/042037

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Food waste causes tremendous problems in terms of environment and economy, twined with big social influence, thus studies on food waste are essential and meanwhile very complicated According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 1.3 billion ton/year of food are wasted globally, which has a total carbon footprint of 4.4 GtCO2 eq per year with a cost of USD 411 billion. According to statistics, China has roughly 195 million tons food waste per year, which is huge. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is an internationally standardized method by ISO for assessment of product and process, has been applied in food sectors to evaluate the different environmental influence, energy use etc. This paper analyzed some of the LCA application on the different parts of the food supply chain (production, post-harvest handling, the storage and transportation, processing, the retail, and consumption) where food waste is generated and on the food waste disposal stage, looked into what has been studied in the context of China, and gave recommendations for LCA application for Chinese food waste problems: 1) More application of LCA on food waste should be made on the early stage of the food cycle rather than just the kitchen waste; 2) Besides global warming potentials, other environmental influences should be studied more at the same time; 3) Food waste treatment can be studied using LCA broadly considering mixture with other substrates and using different recycling methods; 4) LCA based on a local context with local data/inventory are strongly needed; 5) further more detailed studies to support an elevated food waste management, such as food waste profile can be developed.