Environmental Impact Assessment of Food Waste Management Using Two Composting Techniques

Abstract

Food waste is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and therefore global warming. As such, the management of food waste can play a fundamental role in the reduction of preventable emissions associated with food waste. In this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used to evaluate and compare the environmental impact associated with two composting techniques for treating food waste using SimaPro software; windrow composting and the hybrid anaerobic digestion (AD) method. The study, based on a 1 tonne of food waste as a functional unit for a case study in the State of Qatar, concludes that anaerobic digestion combined composting presents a smaller environmental burden than windrow composting. The majority of the emissions generated are due to the use of fossil fuels during transportation, which correspond to approximately 60% of the total impact, followed by the impact of composting with 40% of the impact especially in terms of global warming potential. Environmental assessment impacts were the highest in windrow composting for the acidification impact category (9.39 × 10 − 1 kg SO 2 eq). While for AD combined composting the impact was highest for the human toxicity impact category (3.47 × 10 kg 1,4 − DB eq).

Decentralized Community Composting: Past, Present and Future Aspects of Italy

“…In 2016, the total waste generated in the EU-28 with respect to all economic activities and households was equal to 2538 million tonnes; furthermore, 486 kg MSW/capita were generated in the EU in 2017 [1]. In a broader food-water-energy nexus perspective, when these streams with a rich mix of organic compounds are wasted, the resources used to produce, collect, treat, process and transport them, are all wasted, and this results in significant losses in energy and water [2,3]. In this regard, decoupling economic growth from the environmental impacts associated with waste generation is a priority target of the EU [4].…”

GWP, AP, and EP Contribution on Potential Improving Scenarios of Domestic SWM in Padang City: A Review

“…Acid rain lead the harm of creatures, including the malnutrision and dead of aquatics, animals, plants, and trees, also cause irritant and organ disturbance while contacted to human (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2016). Futhermore, Composting and Anaerobic Digestion have a slight impact in AP contribution by NH3 as the gases depositions that led smog formation, soil acidification, air quality reduction, and soil water eutrophication (Al-Rumaihi et al, 2020).…”

The Potential of Selected Agri-Food Loss and Waste to Contribute to a Circular Economy: Applications in the Food, Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Industries

“…These wastes are generally unproperly used. On the contrary, they are discarded to landfills that increasingly occupy more land, contaminating soils, surface, and underground waters, increasing the ecosystem’s imbalance due to the agricultural sector’s indiscriminate production [ 79 ]. For this reason, it is necessary to study their chemical composition and their potential to introduce them as a raw material in several industrial processes, evolving towards a circular economy [ 78 ].…”

“…imbalance due to the agricultural sector's indiscriminate production [79]. For this reason, it is necessary to study their chemical composition and their potential to introduce them as a raw material in several industrial processes, evolving towards a circular economy [78].…”