Comparison between the Technologies for Food Waste Treatment

Abstract

Based on life cycle assessment (LCA), this paper compares five different methods for food waste treatment. To achieve it, the environmental performance of food waste in Shandong University as a case study is evaluated. The case study indicates that saving food is the ultimate way to reduce environment impact and the distance for transportation also affects a lot. The result of comparison shows that landfill contributes most to climate change, which is about 10 times larger than others. For acidification and eutrophication, incineration shows the worst result 7.77 PAF*m2yr. And composting has the largest impact on carcinogens with the result 3.49E-05 DALY. On the whole, the waste treatment technologies are recommended in proper sequence from anaerobic digestion, heat-moisture reaction, composting and incineration to landfill.