Assessment of global warming potentials in recycling of food waste to biogas by LCA

World Congress and Expo on Recycling

July 20-22, 2015 Barcelona, Spain

Yong-Chul Jang,Yashoda Padeyanda and Youngjae Ko

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Environ Anal Toxicol

Abstract :

Food waste from households, restaurants and commercials can become an energy resource. While recycling of food waste is commonly practiced in Korea, the proper and sustainable management offood waste is still an issue of concern especially after the recent ban of ocean dumping of food waste leachate since January, 2013. In this paper, the global warming potential (GWP) of food waste management bylife cycle stages in Daejeon Metropolitan City in Korea was evaluated by material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). According to the LCA results, global warming potential (GWP) was found to be approximately 166 kg CO2-eq/ton of food waste. This study also found that the disposal stage showed higher impact of GWP on the environment than other life cycle stages due to the landfilling of solid sludge and screenedwaste materials. The results of LCA would provide policy-makers to identify and reduce potential environmental impacts associated with food waste to biogas conversion by life cycle.