What Is the Most Environmentally Beneficial Way to Treat Commercial Food Waste?

Abstract

Commercial food waste represents a relatively available high-quality feedstock for landfill diversion to biological treatment. A life-cycle assessment was performed for commercial food waste processed through aerobic composting systems of varying complexity, anaerobic digestion, and landfills with and without gas collection and energy recovery, as well as a bioreactor landfill. The functional unit was 1000 kg of food waste plus 550 kg of branches that are used as a bulking agent. For each alternative, global warming potential, NOx and SO2 emissions, and total net energy use were determined. Anaerobic digestion was the most environmentally beneficial treatment option, leading to −395 kg net CO2e per functional unit. This result was driven by avoided electricity generation and soil carbon storage from use of the resulting soil amendment. The composting alternatives led to between −148 and −64 kg net CO2e, whereas the landfill alternatives led to the emission of −240 to 1100 kg CO2e. A traditional landfill with energy recovery was predicted to have lower emissions than any of the composting alternatives when a fertilizer offset was used. There is variation in the results based on uncertainty in the inputs, and the relative rankings of the alternatives are dependent on the soil amendment offset that is used. The use of compost to offset peat has greater emission offsets than the value of compost as a fertilizer