Transformation of Hotel Food Waste into Animal Feed: Two Operational Periods of the Food for Feed Pilot Unit

Food waste represents 25–35% of the European Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), thus its diversion into innovative utilization streams is critical for sustainable waste management and the achievement of circularity. Opportunities are even higher in the island of Crete, Greece, where landfilled food waste is 39% of MSW. In this context, the LIFE-F4F Project implements a pilot scale modified solar drying process that provides an innovative, low-tech and low emissions method for safe transformation of source separated food waste into animal feed

FOOD WASTE PREVENTION AS A TOOL FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION: A CASE STUDY FROM GREECE

Abstract Since the publication of the findings that consumers in the UK throw away 31% of the food that they buy, food waste is becoming an increasingly significant global issue. Food waste is generated throughout the entire life cycle of food. Since significant resources are required for food production, manufacturing, transportation, storage, retailing and preparation, food waste is a waste of valuable resources with obvious economic and environmental implications. To make matters environmentally worse, food waste typically ends up in landfills and, due to its high biodegradability, contributes to the global greenhouse gases generation. Thus, food waste prevention, among its other positive contributions, can also act as a tool for the mitigation of man-made climate change. The aim of this paper is the estimation of the GHG emissions associated with food waste generation in Greece. The scope of the research included both the emissions upstream of the waste management and those associated with the management of food waste. The results indicate that emissions of 5,609.2 Gg of CO 2 eq. are associated with food waste in Greece. In order to reduce the burden on global warming resulting from food waste, emphasis should be placed on the prevention of food waste generated throughout the life cycle of food stuff. Keywords: greenhouse gases, food waste, prevention 2 Introduction There is evidence that the most environmentally damaging form of human consumption is eatin

Investigations on the Use of Dried Food Residues as a Potential Dietary Ingredient for Cats

The potential use of food residues for pet food could significantly contribute to food waste reduction. In the present study, the effects of the inclusion of dried food residues (DFR) (0, 5, 10 and 15%) in a complete diet were evaluated in seven healthy adult cats. At the end of each three-week feeding period, feces were collected. The analysis of the fecal microbiota by 16S rDNA sequencing demonstrated a marked increase of the bacterial alpha-diversity with increasing dietary inclusion levels of DFR. In addition, an increase in the relative abundance of Coriobacteriales, Collinsella and Lachnoclostridum, as well as of propionate and n-valerate in the feces of the cats, was detected. The dietary inclusion of DFR decreased the apparent crude protein digestibility and tended to decrease the apparent crude fat digestibility. Overall, the DFR seemed to be highly fermentable in the intestine of cats, which markedly affected the diversity of the fecal microbiota. As this effect might be critical for a balanced gut microbiota, but also along with the observed depressing effects of DFR on the apparent crude protein and crude fat digestibility, lower inclusion levels are recommended if used as a potential ingredient for cat food in the future

WASTE PREVENTION SCENARIOS USING A WEB-BASED TOOL FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Abstract Waste prevention is the highest ranked priority in the European Waste Framework Directive. The aim of this paper is to present the design, development and main features of a web-based tool that enables local authorities to select and implement optimum waste prevention programmes for their local conditions and to prepare their Waste Prevention Plans. The aforementioned tool, namely the WASP-Tool, is implemented as a knowledge-based decision support system which extracts characteristics and features of the waste prevention strategy models and applies multi-criteria evaluation techniques in order to facilitate decision making. It has been developed in Greek and reflects Greek and Cypriot data, context and waste prevention potential, to facilitate its use by local authorities and local administration

An efficient method for measuring dissolved VOSCs in wastewater using GC-SCD with static headspace technique

Volatile organic sulfur compounds (VOSCs) are important sources of unpleasant odor in wastewater systems. However, the study of VOSCs is usually hindered by their complicated measurement method and highly reactive nature. In this work, a static headspace method utilising gas chromatography (GC) with a sulfur chemiluminescence detector (SCD) was developed to quantitatively analyze VOSCs in wastewater matrices. The method has low detection limits and requires no pre-concentration treatment. Three typical VOSCs, namely methanethiol (MT), dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), were chosen as examples for this study. The calibration curves of all three compounds covering a wide range from 0.5 ppb to 500 ppb showed good linearity (R-2 > 0.999). The method detection limits (MDL) were 0.08, 0.12 and 0.21 ppb for MT, DMS and DMDS, respectively. The reproducibility (relative standard deviation) was approximately 2%. The recovery ratio of MT, DMS and DMDS in spiked wastewater samples were 83 +/- 4%, 103 +/- 4% and 102 +/- 3%, respectively. Sample preservation tests showed that VOSCs in wastewater samples could be preserved in vials without headspace under acidified conditions (pH similar to 1.1) for at least 24 h without significant changes

Assessing the transition of municipal solid waste management using combined material flow analysis and life cycle assessment

Faced with the challenges to deal with increasingly growing and ever diversified municipal solid waste (MSW), a series of waste directives have been published by European Commission to divert MSW from landfills to more sustainable management options. The presented study assessed the transition of MSW man-agement in Nottingham, UK, since the enforcement of the EU Landfill Directive using a tool of combined materials flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assess-ment (LCA). The results show that the MSW management system in Nottingham changed from a relatively simple landfill & energy from waste (EfW) mode to a complex, multi-technology mode. Improvements in waste reduction, material re-cycling, energy recovery, and landfill prevention have been made. As a positive result, the global warming potential (GWP) of the MSW management system re-duced from 1,076.0 kg CO2–eq./t of MSW in 2001/02 to 211.3 kg CO2–eq./t of MSW in 2016/17. Based on the results of MFA and LCA, recommendations on separating food waste and textile at source and updating treatment technologies are made for future improvement