IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/inecol/v23y2019i2p480-495.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mapping the Influence of Food Waste in Food Packaging Environmental Performance Assessments

Author

Listed:
  • Martin C. Heller
  • Susan E. M. Selke
  • Gregory A. Keoleian

Abstract

Scrutiny of food packaging environmental impacts has led to a variety of sustainability directives, but has largely focused on the direct impacts of materials. A growing awareness of the impacts of food waste warrants a recalibration of packaging environmental assessment to include the indirect effects due to influences on food waste. In this study, we model 13 food products and their typical packaging formats through a consistent life cycle assessment framework in order to demonstrate the effect of food waste on overall system greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and cumulative energy demand (CED). Starting with food waste rate estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we calculate the effect on GHG emissions and CED of a hypothetical 10% decrease in food waste rate. This defines a limit for increases in packaging impacts from innovative packaging solutions that will still lead to net system environmental benefits. The ratio of food production to packaging production environmental impact provides a guide to predicting food waste effects on system performance. Based on a survey of the food LCA literature, this ratio for GHG emissions ranges from 0.06 (wine example) to 780 (beef example). High ratios with foods such as cereals, dairy, seafood, and meats suggest greater opportunity for net impact reductions through packaging‐based food waste reduction innovations. While this study is not intended to provide definitive LCAs for the product/package systems modeled, it does illustrate both the importance of considering food waste when comparing packaging alternatives, and the potential for using packaging to reduce overall system impacts by reducing food waste.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin C. Heller & Susan E. M. Selke & Gregory A. Keoleian, 2019. "Mapping the Influence of Food Waste in Food Packaging Environmental Performance Assessments," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(2), pages 480-495, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:23:y:2019:i:2:p:480-495
    DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12743
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12743
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jiec.12743?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lotta Ruippo & Hanna Koivula & Jaana Korhonen & Anne Toppinen & Eliisa Kylkilahti, 2023. "Innovating for Sustainability: Attributes, Motivations, and Responsibilities in the Finnish Food Packaging Ecosystem," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 919-937, June.
    2. Christina Tsouti & Christina Papadaskalopoulou & Angeliki Konsta & Panagiotis Andrikopoulos & Margarita Panagiotopoulou & Sofia Papadaki & Christos Boukouvalas & Magdalini Krokida & Katerina Valta, 2023. "Investigating the Environmental Benefits of Novel Films for the Packaging of Fresh Tomatoes Enriched with Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Compounds through Life Cycle Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-22, May.
    3. Usha Ramanathan & Ramakrishnan Ramanathan & Abiodun Adefisan & Tamíris Da Costa & Xavier Cama-Moncunill & Gautam Samriya, 2022. "Adapting Digital Technologies to Reduce Food Waste and Improve Operational Efficiency of a Frozen Food Company—The Case of Yumchop Foods in the UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Cheila Almeida & Philippe Loubet & Tamíris Pacheco da Costa & Paula Quinteiro & Jara Laso & David Baptista de Sousa & Ronan Cooney & Sinead Mellett & Guido Sonnemann & Carlos José Rodríguez & Neil Row, 2022. "Packaging environmental impact on seafood supply chains: A review of life cycle assessment studies," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(6), pages 1961-1978, December.
    5. Burek, Jasmina & Nutter, Darin W., 2020. "Environmental implications of perishables storage and retailing☆," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:23:y:2019:i:2:p:480-495. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1088-1980 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.