Competing for food waste – Policies’ market feedbacks imply sustainability tradeoffs

Latka, Catharina; Parodi, Alejandro; Hal, Ollie van; Heckelei, Thomas; Leip, Adrian; Witzke, Peter; Zanten, H.H.E. van

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106545

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…As an illustration, considering that most household organic waste are avoidable, total impacts associated with this stream would rise from 0.4 MtCO 2 -eq.y -1 (waste management phase only; Figure 1) to 15.1 MtCO 2 -eq.y -1 when including the production impacts of the avoidable share, which would duplicate the residual biomass baseline climate change performance and position this stream as the most impactful (see SI for background calculations). In a nutshell, avoidable residual streams should not be considered as part of the resource potential for the bioeconomy as preventing their generation yields significantly greater environmental benefits than their generation and further valorization (Albizzati et al, 2021;Latka et al, 2022;Teigiserova et al, 2020). Finally, several limitations need to be lifted to unlock comprehensive quantification and monitoring of the proposed residual biomass baseline as drafted by this study.…”

Section: Crop Residuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Detailed terminologies can be found elsewhere (e.g. in Teigiserova et al, 2020), but what is referred to as food waste is in fact mostly composed by food losses, which are avoidable (Latka et al, 2022). In turn, the impacts of managing food losses (as part of household organic waste) are negligible compared to the impacts associated with their production phase.…”

Section: Crop Residuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Setting the environmental performance threshold for diverting residual streams towards bioeconomy strategies

Javourez,

Karan,

Hamelin

2023

Preprint

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To shift towards low fossil carbon economies, making more out of residual biomass is increasingly promoted. Yet, it remains unclear if implementing advanced technologies to reuse these streams really achieves net environmental benefits compared to current management practices. By integrating resource assessment methods, consequential life cycle analysis (LCA) and uncertainty analysis, we propose a single framework to quantify the residual biomass baseline, which is the environmental threshold any bioeconomy strategy should overpass. For France, we estimate the residual biomass baseline to generate 18.4 ± 2.7 MtCO2-eq.y-1, 255 ± 35 ktN-eq.y-1 and 12,300 ± 800 diseases per year (particulate matter formation). More than 90% of total environmental impacts and associated uncertainties were found attributable to the conventional management of crop residues and livestock effluents. We systematically assessed the environmental impacts associated with each residual stream, by reporting potential improvement measures and actions to reduce uncertainties. Overall, reusing residual streams as fertilizing products is currently supplying more than half of total P and K demand for France, but only 6% of the nitrogen demand, due to volatilization and prevailing farming accounting practices. Moreover, only 3% of residual streams are currently diverted to energy recovery. We argue that current situation is not a suitable reference for bioeconomy trajectories, as efforts to improve the agricultural and energy reuse of residual streams are already underway. These include the wide deployment of anaerobic digestion and the prioritization of biogas to suply sectors without decarbonization options, among others. We suggest any alternative bioeconomy strategy should rather compare to this projected baseline, estimated for France at 8.5 MtCO2-eq.y-1. The proposed framework is a stepping stone in defining indicators tailored to track the environmental relevance of bioeconomy strategies, but should be integrated with spatially-explicit LCA to guide local waste management planning.

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Section: Crop Residuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Crop Residuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Setting the environmental performance threshold for diverting residual streams towards bioeconomy strategies

Javourez,

Karan,

Hamelin

2023

Preprint

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“…1) to 15.1 MtCO 2 -eq.y − 1 when including the production impacts (as avoidable), which would duplicate the residual biomass baseline climate change performance and position this stream as the most impactful (see SI for background calculations). In a nutshell, avoidable residual streams should not be considered as part of the resource potential for the bioeconomy as preventing their generation yields signi cantly greater environmental bene ts than their generation and further valorization (Albizzati et al, 2021;Latka et al, 2022;Teigiserova et al, 2020).…”

Section: Re Ning the Residual Biomass Baseline: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Setting the environmental performance threshold for diverting residual streams towards bioeconomy strategies

Javourez,

Karan,

Hamelin

2023

Preprint

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To shift towards low fossil carbon economies, making more out of residual streams is increasingly promoted. Yet, it remains unclear whether or not deploying advanced reuse of residual biomass really achieves net environmental benefits compared to current management practices. By integrating resource assessment methods, consequential life cycle analysis and uncertainty analysis, we propose a single framework to quantify the residual biomass baseline, which is the environmental threshold any bioeconomy strategy should overpass. For France, we estimate the residual biomass baseline to generate 18.4 ± 2.7 MtCO2-eq.y-1, 255 ± 35 ktN-eq.y-1 and 12,300 ± 800 diseases per year (particulate matter formation), principally due to current crop residues and livestock effluent management practices which generate more than 90% of total environmental impacts and associated uncertainties. We systematically characterize the environmental impacts for each stream, by reporting potential improvement measures as well as actions to reduce uncertainties. Overall, current reuse of residual streams in agronomy is estimated to meet more than half of total French P and K fertilizing demand, but only around 6% for nitrogen due to current volatilization and farming accounting practices. Moreover, only 3% of residual streams are currently supplying an energy service. We believe the current situation is not a suitable reference for bioeconomy trajectories. There are already efforts underway to improve the agricultural reuse and energy recovery of these streams. These initiatives aim to reduce the baseline and prioritize the use of biogas in sectors without decarbonization options, potentially halving the residual impact. Accordingly, we suggest any alternative bioeconomy strategy should rather compare to this projected baseline, estimated for France at 8.5 MtCO2-eq.y-1. The proposed framework is a stepping stone in defining indicators tailored to track the relevance of bioeconomy strategies, but should include refined modeling and move towards spatially-explicit LCA to accompany local waste management planning.

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“…Food waste from households, restaurants, and food processing facilities accounts for the largest organic fraction in solid waste from the built environment. , Food waste is a major source of pollution if it is not properly managed. However, it is also a valuable resource for organic fertilizer and energy production. − In a modern circular economy, food waste is segregated and used as feedstock for anaerobic digestion to produce energy (in the form of biogas) and digestate that can be converted to soil conditioner …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Food waste from households, restaurants, and food processing facilities accounts for the largest organic fraction in solid waste from the built environment. 1,2 Food waste is a major source of pollution if it is not properly managed. However, it is also a valuable resource for organic fertilizer and energy production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Lignocellulosic Biomass Composition to Regulate Microbial Mutualism for Organic Mineralization and Humification during Digestate Composting

Gao,

Xu,

Shi

et al. 2024

ACS EST Eng.

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This study investigated the performance of lignocellulosic wastes to regulate microbial interactions to improve the composting of digestate from the anaerobic digestion of food waste regarding organic mineralization and humification. Garden waste, rice husk, and cornstalks with diverse lignocellulosic biomass compositions and structures were representatively selected for comparison. High-throughput sequencing was integrated with a modular network analysis to decipher microbial community structures and their interactions. Results showed that mixing 15% of cornstalks and garden waste with digestate (wet weight) was more effective than rice husk to enrich functional microbes (e.g., Tepidimicrobium and Mortierella) to promote the microbial interkingdom for lignocellulosic degradation and humus formation. In particular, a stronger bacterial intrakingdom mutualism was observed with cornstalk addition to facilitate the progressive succession of bacteria in digestate from anaerobic to aerobic and thus inhibit the activities of anaerobic and denitrifying microbes to reduce the emissions of methane and nitrous oxide by 14.2−49.1%. Furthermore, garden waste with more lignin could effectively strengthen intrakingdom mutualism within fungi and their interkingdom interaction with bacteria to mitigate organic carbon mineralization and reduce carbon dioxide emission by 39.8−42.7%. By contrast, rice husk weakened microbial interkingdom mutualisms to retard organic biodegradation and humification during digestate composting. Results from this study provided fundamental understanding on selecting lignocellulosic wastes to regulate organic biotransformation and to improve humification and simultaneously mitigate gaseous emissions in digestate composting.

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Competing for food waste – Policies’ market feedbacks imply sustainability tradeoffs

Cited by 11 publications

References 54 publications

Setting the environmental performance threshold for diverting residual streams towards bioeconomy strategies

Setting the environmental performance threshold for diverting residual streams towards bioeconomy strategies

Setting the environmental performance threshold for diverting residual streams towards bioeconomy strategies

Role of Lignocellulosic Biomass Composition to Regulate Microbial Mutualism for Organic Mineralization and Humification during Digestate Composting

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