Title
Climate action and food security: Strategies to reduce GHG emissions from food loss and waste in emerging economies
Date Issued
01 July 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
Peru struggles to upgrade its waste management, with landfilling only just overtaking open dumpsters as the main disposal method. Despite the benefits of this transition, including reduced environmental impacts to water and soil, previous studies demonstrated that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may increase if adequate levels of technological sophistication are not implemented. Considering that 58% of municipal solid waste (MSW) is organic, it seems plausible that a relevant portion of emissions can be linked directly to food loss and waste (FLW) management. This study aims to determine the GHG emissions mitigation potential in FLW compared to the current baseline scenario in 24 Peruvian cities, by modelling alternative technologies to treat organic MSW. Life cycle modelling was performed using the waste-LCA software EASETECH. Five treatment scenarios were modelled: i) open dumping; ii) landfilling with no gas treatment; iii) landfilling with landfill gas treatment; iv) landfilling with energy recovery; and, v) anaerobic digestion. GHG emissions of FLW generation proved to be substantially higher than those for FLW treatment. However, if sophisticated technologies are implemented in FLW treatment, an annual reduction of up to 1.56 Mt CO2eq could be attained. Moreover, despite the health and environmental benefits of a transition to optimized diets, in which, for example, meat consumption is reduced and vegetables are boosted, an important increase in FLW and, therefore, an increase in GHG emissions in the treatment phase is shown. However, if certain technologies, such as energy recovery or anaerobic digestion, were implemented, most carbon losses would be avoided.
Volume
170
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería ambiental y geológica
Economía
Investigación climática
Alimentos y bebidas
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85102991846
Source
Resources, Conservation and Recycling
ISSN of the container
09213449
Sponsor(s)
The authors thank Gustavo Larrea-Gallegos for valuable scientific exchange. Ian Vázquez-Rowe wishes to thank the Dirección Académica de Relaciones Internacionales from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) for financial support during his research stay at the Universidad de Cantabria (Spain) and the Dirección General de Investigación from PUCP for financing the Walaya Project. The team at the Universidad de Cantabria thanks the Ceres-Procom Project (CTM2016-76176-C2-1-R) (AEI/FEDER, UE) for financial support. Lesley C. Vázquez is thanked for revising the language of the manuscript.
European Regional Development Fund.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus