A Quantitative Sustainability Assessment of Food Waste Management in the European Union

In an endeavor to
make Europe carbon-neutral, and to foster a circular
economy, improving food waste management has been identified by the
European Union (EU) as a key factor. In this study, we consider 21
pathways, covering: (i) prevention; (ii) reuse for both human consumption
and animal feed; (iii) material recycling as an input into the food
and chemical industries; (iv) nutrient recycling; and (v) energy/fuel
recovery. To include all types of impact, a sustainability assessment,
encompassing environmental, economic, and social pillars, is performed
and complemented with societal life cycle costing. The results indicate
that after prevention, reuse for human consumption and animal feed
is the most preferred option, and, in most cases, nutrient recycling
and energy recovery are favored over material recycling for chemical
production. While highlighting that the food waste management hierarchy
should be supported with quantitative sustainability analyses, the
findings also illustrate that biochemical pathways should be improved
to be competitive despite the fact that food waste valorization has
the potential to satisfy the EU demand for the chemicals investigated.
Yet, the results clearly show that the potential benefits of improving
emerging technologies would still not eclipse the benefits related
to food waste prevention and its redistribution.