2021 – Recognizing the wealth of non-marketable food in distribution centres: The environmental benefits of donation

Resumo (EN)

About one-third of annual global food production for human consumption is wasted, increasing the pressure on the environment in providing resources to support food supply-chains. Food waste reduction is of fundamental importance towards a more sustainable world, as recognized by the United Nations in the twelfth of its seventeen sustainable development goals for 2030. Among other practices, food donation appears as an alternative to overcome the existing social and environmental issues related to food waste, however, donation also causes environmental pressure by requiring additional energy investment on infrastructure and operational goods, while releasing gases to atmosphere, due to its processes. This work applies the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to evaluate the environmental impacts of plausible food donation scenarios in the ‘CEAGESP’ food distribution center in São Paulo city, Brazil, the third largest in the world regarding marketable food (about 3 million tons/yr). Under the concept of waste hierarchy management options, six scenarios for the CEAGESP's non-marketable food (37,652 tons/yr) were established, from landfilling as a baseline to a donation alternative. Results show that donation scenarios have the least environmental burdens for all nine LCA impact categories. Worst-case scenarios were obtained by landfilling the non-marketable food, considering electricity generation or otherwise. Differences over tenfold in comparative bases among the best and worst-case scenarios were obtained by fossil depletion, global warming, human toxicity, water and metal depletion LCA's impact categories. Results highlight the environmental advantages of donating the non-marketable food of distribution centres, which is aligned with the concepts of circular and regenerative economy towards a sustainable development that should be promoted by public policies. Regional variables as the Brazilian electricity grid based on hydropower plants have considerable influence in some LCA impact categories, especially when accounting for the avoided emissions, emphasizing the importance of carrying out this study for Brazilian conditions.