Title
Combined application of Life Cycle Assessment and linear programming to evaluate food waste-to-food strategies: Seeking for answers in the nexus approach
Date Issued
01 October 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Laso J.
Margallo M.
García-Herrero I.
Fullana P.
Bala A.
Gazulla C.
Polettini A.
Irabien A.
Aldaco R.
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
The great concern regarding food loss (FL) has been studied previously, but in an isolated way, disregarding interdependencies with other areas. This paper aims to go a step further by proposing a new procedure to assess different waste management alternatives based on the nexus approach by means of an integrated Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus Index (WEFCNI). The environmental profile of the waste management techniques is determined using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which, in combination with Linear Programming (LP), explores the optimal aggregation of weighting factors that lead to an aggregated nexus index. The management of residues from the anchovy canning industry in Cantabria (Spain) has been used as a case study, considering the three current applied alternatives: (i) valorisation of FL as animal feed in aquaculture (food waste-to-food approach), (ii) incineration of FL with energy recovery, and (iii) landfilling with biogas recovery. The last two considered the use of energy recovered to produce a new aquaculture product (food waste-to-energy-to-food scenarios). The results indicate that incineration is the best performing scenario when the nutritional energy provided by the valorisation alternative is not high enough and the valorisation technology presents the highest water consumption. Therefore, a minimisation in the consumption of natural resources is suggested in order to improve the application of circular economy within the sector. The use of the nexus index as an environmental management tool is extendable to any food system with the aim of facilitating the decision-making process in the development of more sustainable products.
Start page
186
End page
197
Volume
80
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Alimentos y bebidas
Economía
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85053295789
PubMed ID
Source
Waste Management
ISSN of the container
0956053X
Sponsor(s)
The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for its financial support via the project GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies ( CTM2013-43539-R ) and to Julia Celaya for her technical support. Jara Laso thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for its financial support via the research fellowship BES-2014-069368 . Pere Fullana and Alba Bala thank the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change. Ian Vázquez-Rowe thanks the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú for financing the Walaya Project.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus