Salemdeeb Ramy, Font Vivanco David, Al-Tabbaa Abir, Zu Ermgassen Erasmus K H J
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK.
Center for Industrial Ecology, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, United States.
Waste Manag. 2017 Jan;59:442-450. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2016.09.042. Epub 2016 Oct 4.
The environmental evaluation of food waste prevention is considered a challenging task due to the globalised nature of the food supply chain and the limitations of existing evaluation tools. The most significant of these is the rebound effect: the associated environmental burdens of substitutive consumption that arises as a result of economic savings made from food waste prevention. This study introduces a holistic approach to addressing these challenges, with a focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from household food waste in the UK. It uses a hybrid life-cycle assessment model coupled with a highly detailed multi-regional environmentally extended input output analysis to capture environmental impacts across the global food supply chain. The study also takes into consideration the rebound effect, which was modelled using a linear specification of an almost ideal demand system. The study finds that food waste prevention could lead to substantial reductions in GHG emissions in the order of 706-896kg CO-eq. per tonne of food waste, with most of these savings (78%) occurring as a result of avoided food production overseas. The rebound effect may however reduce such GHG savings by up to 60%. These findings provide a deeper insight into our understanding of the environmental impacts of food waste prevention: the study demonstrates the need to adopt a holistic approach when developing food waste prevention policies in order to mitigate the rebound effect and highlight the importance of increasing efficiency across the global food supply chain, particularly in developing countries.
由于食品供应链的全球化性质以及现有评估工具的局限性，对食品废弃物预防进行环境评估被视为一项具有挑战性的任务。其中最显著的是反弹效应：即因预防食品废弃物所节省的经济成本而产生的替代性消费相关环境负担。本研究引入了一种整体方法来应对这些挑战，重点关注英国国内家庭食品废弃物的温室气体（GHG）排放。它使用了一个混合生命周期评估模型，并结合高度详细的多区域环境扩展投入产出分析，以捕捉全球食品供应链中的环境影响。该研究还考虑了反弹效应，其通过几乎理想需求系统的线性规范进行建模。研究发现，预防食品废弃物可大幅减少温室气体排放，每吨食品废弃物可减少约706 - 896千克二氧化碳当量，其中大部分减排量（78%）是由于避免了海外食品生产所致。然而，反弹效应可能会使此类温室气体减排量减少多达60%。这些发现为我们对食品废弃物预防的环境影响的理解提供了更深入的见解：该研究表明，在制定食品废弃物预防政策时需要采用整体方法，以减轻反弹效应，并强调提高全球食品供应链效率的重要性，特别是在发展中国家。
