Carbon Footprint of Food Waste Management: A Case …
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reduce a considerable volume of MSW, has several drawbacks for the OFMSW treatment, mainly associated with the high moisture content of the waste. The requirement
of an external supply of oxygen, a well-equipped burning system and appropriate
pollution control accessories make the implementation of this process more difficult
[8]. It is also important to mention that, in the case of thermal treatment, the process
releases to the atmosphere an amount of carbon from the burning, differing from
the regenerative and biogenic emission sources, such as composting and anaerobic
digestion of organic waste.
Several studies addressing the life cycle of municipal solid waste have considered
the anaerobic digestion (AD) a sustainable process for treating the OFMSW [9]. This
is because AD contribute to the mitigation of GHG emissions and allow resource
recovery from by-products, such as biogas (that can be transformed into electricity
and thermal energy or used as biofuel) and biosolids (that can be used in agriculture
or soil recovery), ensuring the resilience of cities on the circular economy approach.
Considering this scenario, this chapter is intended to provide insights of the
management of large-scale food waste generation, such as supermarkets and street
fairs, and its impacts in the City of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The environmental
and economic benefits associated with the first semi-industrial scale solid-state AD
(SSAD) of OFMSW in Latin America is also evaluated. Located at the EcoParqueCaju of the Municipal Urban Cleaning Company (COMLURB), the unit recovers
biogas in the form of energy by a combined heat and power (CHP) system and also
produce biosolids for community gardens and farms use [31]. It is worthy to mention
that, considering the fact that the landfill is located 80 km far from EcoParque-Caju,
this SSAD process avoids the transportation and landfill disposal of the food waste.
The carbon emissions arising from the food wastage, based on the waste composition (food types treated) and level of the food chain in which the waste has occurred,
as well as the carbon emissions from food waste management, are also assessed in
this chapter. From the carbon footprint quantification, it will be possible to evaluate
the contribution of some initiatives such as the development of strategies to reduce
food wastage and the incorporation of AD in food waste management, in order to
mitigate GHG emissions and promote resource recovery from the by-products, in a
circular economy point of view.
Apart from this introduction, this chapter is organized as follows. A review of
the carbon footprint of food waste management is presented in Sect. 2, with the
characteristics and worldwide food waste contextualization. Section 3 is dedicated
to the carbon footprint methodology applied for this study regarding the different
evaluated scenarios while the characteristics of the case study are presented by Sect. 4.
Section 5 shows the main results and discussion and finally Sect. 6 presents the main
conclusions.
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reduce a considerable volume of MSW, has several drawbacks for the OFMSW treatment, mainly associated with the high moisture content of the waste. The requirement
of an external supply of oxygen, a well-equipped burning system and appropriate
pollution control accessories make the implementation of this process more difficult
[8]. It is also important to mention that, in the case of thermal treatment, the process
releases to the atmosphere an amount of carbon from the burning, differing from
the regenerative and biogenic emission sources, such as composting and anaerobic
digestion of organic waste.
Several studies addressing the life cycle of municipal solid waste have considered
the anaerobic digestion (AD) a sustainable process for treating the OFMSW [9]. This
is because AD contribute to the mitigation of GHG emissions and allow resource
recovery from by-products, such as biogas (that can be transformed into electricity
and thermal energy or used as biofuel) and biosolids (that can be used in agriculture
or soil recovery), ensuring the resilience of cities on the circular economy approach.
Considering this scenario, this chapter is intended to provide insights of the
management of large-scale food waste generation, such as supermarkets and street
fairs, and its impacts in the City of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The environmental
and economic benefits associated with the first semi-industrial scale solid-state AD
(SSAD) of OFMSW in Latin America is also evaluated. Located at the EcoParqueCaju of the Municipal Urban Cleaning Company (COMLURB), the unit recovers
biogas in the form of energy by a combined heat and power (CHP) system and also
produce biosolids for community gardens and farms use [31]. It is worthy to mention
that, considering the fact that the landfill is located 80 km far from EcoParque-Caju,
this SSAD process avoids the transportation and landfill disposal of the food waste.
The carbon emissions arising from the food wastage, based on the waste composition (food types treated) and level of the food chain in which the waste has occurred,
as well as the carbon emissions from food waste management, are also assessed in
this chapter. From the carbon footprint quantification, it will be possible to evaluate
the contribution of some initiatives such as the development of strategies to reduce
food wastage and the incorporation of AD in food waste management, in order to
mitigate GHG emissions and promote resource recovery from the by-products, in a
circular economy point of view.
Apart from this introduction, this chapter is organized as follows. A review of
the carbon footprint of food waste management is presented in Sect. 2, with the
characteristics and worldwide food waste contextualization. Section 3 is dedicated
to the carbon footprint methodology applied for this study regarding the different
evaluated scenarios while the characteristics of the case study are presented by Sect. 4.
Section 5 shows the main results and discussion and finally Sect. 6 presents the main
conclusions.