Carbon Emissions and Energy Balance in the Design of a Sustainable Food Waste Network

In this paper, the food waste valorization alternatives are evaluated from a sustainability point of view. Using food waste characteristics as input data, we estimate the sustainable benefits such as energy utilization and GHG emission reduction for each potential food waste processing technique. Additionally, the sustainable benefits of reverse logistics of food waste are quantified based upon geographic distance and valorization characteristics. We formulate the food waste network framework as a strategic linear programming (LP) model that aims to minimize total food waste management costs while satisfying emissions and energy use constraints. Given the recent regulations of the commercial food material disposal ban, we test the efficiency of the proposed framework by designing a sustainable food waste treatment network for the state of Massachusetts. Results show that with a marginal increase in the treatment cost of food waste, the model has achieved zero net emissions, zero net energy use, and a competitive overall sustainability impact. Thus, by utilizing the food waste network model, policymakers can achieve the best sustainable strategies for food waste management. The paper contributes theoretically to the assessment of the food waste recovery alternatives by expanding the system boundary and presenting additional key performance measures of sustainability. Practically, this study provides case studies based on real-life data and generates multiple scenarios to better analyze the results and select the best recovery options from a sustainability perspective.