Life Cycle Assessment of Icelandic Arctic Char Fed Three Different Feed Types

This study utilized Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to quantify the environmental impacts of 1 kg of live-weight Arctic char, cultivated in an Icelandic land-based aquaculture farm. The functional unit included assessments of three different feed types; standard feed with high inclusion levels of marine ingredients (Conv.), experimental feed with high inclusion levels of agricultural ingredients (ECO) and a hypothetical Black soldier fly larvae based feed (BSF). Results of the study indicated that the feed production causes the greatest environmental impacts from all feed types considered. The Black soldier fly based feed demonstrated the best environmental performance of the three feed types. Furthermore, it can be concluded that by increasing agriculture based ingredients at the cost of marine based ingredients, a better environmental performance can be reached. This study demonstrated the importance of feed production for aquaculture in terms of environmental impacts and showed that byoptimizing feed consumption, reducing the amount of fishmeal and fish oil and even creating new types of feed from novel ingredients, the overall impacts of aquaculture can be greatly reduced.The study was conducted as a part of MSc studies in Environmental and Natural Resources at the University of Iceland, in collaboration with Matis ltd., Icelandic food and biotech R&D, which also funded the project. The authors are grateful for the financial and expert support provided by both entities. The authors would also like to thank the owner of the aquaculture company involved in the study, for clear and concise data provision, and also other companies that provided data for this study.Peer Reviewe

Identification of environmental hotspots in fishmeal and fish oil production towards the optimization of energy-related processes

Funding Information: This work was supported by the AVS (The Added Value of Seafood) fund of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture in Iceland (Redesign of fishmeal and fish oil factories, grant number: R18 031-18 ), the Rannís Icelandic Technology Development Fund (Product development from flexible fish processing no. 198883-0611 and BIOZOOSTAIN no. 2021267-0611 ), ERA-NET BlueBioCofund Call (BIOZOOSTAIN) and the University of Iceland research fund . The work was carried out at the University of Iceland and Matís ohf. The authors thank Síldarvinnslan hf. for access to their facilities, assistance, and raw materials. Funding Information: This work was supported by the AVS (The Added Value of Seafood) fund of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture in Iceland (Redesign of fishmeal and fish oil factories, grant number: R18 031-18), the Rann?s Icelandic Technology Development Fund (Product development from flexible fish processing no. 198883-0611 and BIOZOOSTAIN no. 2021267-0611), ERA-NET BlueBioCofund Call (BIOZOOSTAIN) and the University of Iceland research fund. The work was carried out at the University of Iceland and Mat?s ohf. The authors thank S?ldarvinnslan hf. for access to their facilities, assistance, and raw materials. Publisher Copyright: © 2022This study assessed the environmental impacts of a pelagic fishmeal and fish oil production plant in Iceland with the life cycle assessment methodology. The study focused on assessing the effects of different energy sources for utility production due to the high energy intensity of fishmeal and fish oil production, as quality improved with lower cooking temperature. The environmental hotspots of three different processing scenarios were assessed, where the factory was run on hydropower (Scenario 0), heavy fuel (Scenario 1) and a composition of both (Scenario 2), from cradle-to-factory gate. Midpoint results showed that the raw material acquisition contributed the most to the environmental impact when the fishmeal factory was operating on hydropower. However, drying had the highest impact when heavy fuel oil was used for utility production. This study also demonstrated that lowering the cooking temperature from 90 to 85 °C, led to improved quality and simultaneously reduced environmental impacts during processing. This indicated that a small energy adjustment in the production can have an environmental gain, demonstrating the necessity to optimize each processing step in the fishmeal and fish oil production process both for increased product quality and minimizing environmental impacts.Peer reviewe

Veganism and Its Challenges : The Case of Iceland

Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).Our research discusses how four main ethical challenges to veganism manifest in the context of Iceland. Veganism is becoming an increasingly popular lifestyle in many parts of the world, especially in OECD countries. Studies on the motivation for choosing a vegan lifestyle (which includes, but is not restricted to, following a vegan diet) include ethical considerations, dietary choices, personal health, taste, religious and political beliefs, or environmental concerns. Ethics plays a particularly important role, and as such, veganism has become a central object of interest in recent conversations on animal rights and welfare among ethicists. Our analysis reviews four ethical challenges (i.e., the challenge of universality, demandingness, causal impotence, and the least environmental harm principle) in the literature that problematize the norms and rationale underpinning veganism and vegan discourse and discusses how each applies within the context of Icelandic society and geography. We conjecture that the particular economic, demographic, and geographic characteristics of Iceland indicate that being vegan in Iceland does not free oneself of having global social and environmental impacts on account of chosen dietary options. All diets constitute global systems that account for dependencies and opportunities, vulnerabilities, and strengths, which may challenge the assumption that veganism is a more socially and environmentally sustainable dietary option within this particular regional context.Peer reviewe

Plastic Packaging Waste Management in Iceland: Challenges and Opportunities from a Life Cycle Assessment Perspective

The management of plastic packaging waste is advancing quickly, and new strategies are being implemented worldwide for better resource recovery. To assess the environmental benefits of new ways of handling plastic packaging waste, we need to first evaluate current waste management options in order to create a basis for comparison. In this study, the environmental impacts of plastic packaging waste handling are assessed for the first time in Iceland using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The results show that mechanical recycling, despite including the impacts of exporting the waste to different European countries, has more environmental benefits than landfilling the waste in Iceland. Increasing the recycling rates of plastic waste in Iceland is also identified as a promising option from a resource efficiency perspective. With better waste sorting, Iceland can become more environmentally sustainable, ensuring that plastic materials land in recycling processes, and thereby enhancing the flow of material in the circular economy

A hyperstable glycosyltransferase for blue denim dyeing

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Plastic Packaging Waste Management in Iceland : Challenges and Opportunities from a Life Cycle Assessment Perspective

Funding Information: This research received funding from The University of Iceland Research Fund and Matvælasjóður (Food development fund) for the project UMMAT (2021–2022). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.The management of plastic packaging waste is advancing quickly, and new strategies are being implemented worldwide for better resource recovery. To assess the environmental benefits of new ways of handling plastic packaging waste, we need to first evaluate current waste management options in order to create a basis for comparison. In this study, the environmental impacts of plastic packaging waste handling are assessed for the first time in Iceland using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The results show that mechanical recycling, despite including the impacts of exporting the waste to different European countries, has more environmental benefits than landfilling the waste in Iceland. Increasing the recycling rates of plastic waste in Iceland is also identified as a promising option from a resource efficiency perspective. With better waste sorting, Iceland can become more environmentally sustainable, ensuring that plastic materials land in recycling processes, and thereby enhancing the flow of material in the circular economy.Peer reviewe