Life cycle assessment of liquid digestate application strategies for rice agri-food chain in “Zero-waste City”

Environmental life cycle assessment of rice production in northern Italy: a case study from Vercelli

“…As for mineral resource scarcity, the stage that has the most significant impact is crop management (59%) with 1.53 × 10 1 kg Cu eq out of 2.60 × 10 1 kg, and this is most likely due to the fertilizer and pesticide production process, which induces the depletion of mineral resources and critical raw materials used in the chemical industry. These results are in line with those of Yu et al (2022), who show that the use of fertilizer instead of digestate could induce an increase in abiotic resources of + 56-65%. In general, the LCA shows that irrigation combined with fertilizers and pesticides (and the consequent release of active ingredients) is by far the activity that induces a massive environmental load.…”

“…This could be due to the fact that seed production was also considered in the seedling stage. This process requires inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel fuel for machinery, which could directly affect marine eutrophication, especially since there is gaseous leakage and leaching into marine ecosystems during this stage, which leads to an increase in P and N in the water, resulting in excessive primary productivity (Yu et al 2022). Just to confirm this, the seeding stage also affects land use by 52% (2.51 × 10 2 m 2 a sq.…”

“…The choice of these system boundaries is mainly related to the fact that they are considered in most LCA studies in which the impacts of rice production are analyzed. For example, Escobar et al (2022) who in their study considered all the processes involved in paddy rice production in Senegal (fertilizer and herbicide production, as well as production of diesel to operate machinery); Yu et al (2022), Shen et al (2021), andChen et al (2021) who assess the environmental impacts of some rice production in China, considering rice planting, irrigation, weeding, nutrition, and field operations, including the production processes of various inputs (fuels, pesticides, and various fertilizers) until the final product is harvested; or Rezaei et al (2021), Houshyar et al (2019), and Masuda (2019, who quantify the impacts of rice production in Iran (Rezaei et al 2021 andHoushyar et al 2019) and Japan (Masuda 2019), starting from the production of the inputs needed for production, to the harvesting of the finished product.…”

“…However, what changes is that sometimes machinery production processes are also considered (Harun et al 2021;Zoli et al 2021) as well as transportation to the farm (Xu et al 2022). In our study, the production process of the machinery was not considered, both because of data unavailability and because of its reduced environmental contribution due to its long useful life and depreciation (also in agreement with Xu et al 2022 andYu et al 2022), as well as, again because of data unavailability, the other post-harvest production stages were also not considered. Therefore, for better alignment with other studies, and to focus on the impacts related to agricultural processes of rice production, the choice of boundaries fell on the from cradle to farmgate.…”

Sustainability Assessment of Different Extra Virgin Olive Oil Extraction Methods through a Life Cycle Thinking Approach: Challenges and Opportunities in the Elaio-Technical Sector

“…For the same reason, bottling and distribution were also excluded, because each producer has a different approach (oil can be bottled in 0.75 L, 1 L, or 5 L bottles) [37]. In our study, the production of the machinery was not considered, due to the unavailability of the data and the reduced environmental contribution of this factor, considering the long useful life and depreciation of the capital goods [37,38].…”