دانلود رایگان مقاله ارزیابی چرخه زندگی از ضایعات غذایی سوپرمارکت

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.

5. Conclusion

Food waste leads to loss of valuable resources, such as energy, water, land and labour and to unnecessary emissions of pollutants. The research described here investigated supermarket food waste by categorising and quantifying the waste at a supermarket, assessing the environmental impacts of the waste and suggesting alternative ways to treat the waste in order to reduce its environmental footprint.

The life cycle assessment results reported here reveal that the annual wastage of bread and beef products have the largest contribution to the environmental footprint of the supermarket. Compared to the other waste fractions included in the LCA, the annual bread waste has the largest contribution to the total mass of the food waste, the economic costs incurred by the supermarket and the environmental impacts in ozone depletion, freshwater ecotoxicity and resource depletion categories. Beef waste has the largest contribution to particulate matter, photochemical ozone formation, acidification as well as terrestrial and freshwater eutrophication categories.

Alternative waste treatment scenarios, that require separation of the food waste from its packaging at the supermarket and that allows for material recycling of the packaging and the use of bread waste as animal feed, have the potential to reduce the emissions of CO2eq. by as much as 1027 and 1549 kg per year respectively, in comparison with the current waste treatment practiced by the supermarket.