Comparing the Environmental Impacts of Representative Food Donation and Redistribution Strategies

TL;DR

This study compares the environmental benefits of different food donation strategies and finds that improving donation quality and sorting capacities can maximize environmental gains.

Contribution

The study presents a comparative LCA of eight food donation scenarios, identifying key factors for maximizing environmental benefits.

Findings

All eight donation scenarios provided net environmental benefits across five impact categories.

The highest benefits were achieved when intermediary organizations collected and redistributed surplus food.

Rescuing food from landfilling donors yielded greater environmental benefits than from composting donors.

Abstract

Assessing the environmental impacts of food donation systems is necessary to support food donation policy and management. Few life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have investigated the environmental impacts of food donation systems. This comparative LCA study analyzed the environmental impacts of eight different donation scenarios reflecting diverse supply chain configurations and operational management options, using 391.8 kg of redistributed food over two weeks as the functional unit. Each of the eight scenarios presented net environmental benefits for all five life cycle environmental impact categories: 132~233 kg CO2-eq for global warming potential, 2.30~5.24 kg SO2-eq for acidification potential, 1.13~2.04 kg N-eq for eutrophication potential, 1791~3140 MJ for cumulative energy demand, and 3.7 × 107~5.8 × 107 m3 for water resource depletion. The highest magnitudes of environmental benefits were achieved when intermediary organizations collected and gleaned the surplus food from donors and then transported it to food pantries (the eighth scenario). Improving the quality of donated food, augmenting the sorting capacities of emergency organizations, and shortening transportation distances could increase the environmental benefits of food donation systems. The environmental impact intensities of production and waste management choices for food waste generated during the redistribution of the surplus food ranked as the top influential factors for the five environmental impacts. Rescuing surplus food from donors who landfilled the wasted food tended to yield larger environmental benefits than from donors who composted it. Overall, this study finds that improving donation quality and increasing the capacities of emergency food organizations are crucial for maximizing the environmental benefits of the fresh produce donation system.

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