Environmental and economic sustainability assessment of food waste management options in a tortilla industry (a case study)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the waste generated in tortilla production process in a tortilla industry located in London and consider a number of potential solutions. This study evaluated the environmental and economic impacts related to anaerobic digestion, using the food waste as animal feed, and reworking the food waste. The impacts of each waste management options were compared to determine the most sustainable option. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costs (LCC) methods have been applied using SimaPro 9.3.0.3. The functional unit of the study was set to 1 kg of tortilla. The system boundary included the tortilla production processes (mixing, forming, baking, cooling and packaging) and food waste management scenarios. The LCA results showed that reworking the waste will substantially reduce environmental impacts across all assessed categories. The LCC results show that reworking the food waste within the tortilla production process is the best option with the lowest net costs of GBP4.96/kg. This is followed by AD with a net cost of GBP 5.08/kg and lastly by animal feed with a net cost of GBP 6.45/kg.