ETH Zurich , Institute of Environmental Engineering, John-von-Neumann-Weg 9, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
ZHAW Institute of Natural Resource Sciences , Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 8820 Wädenswil, Switzerland.
Environ Sci Technol. 2017 Oct 3;51(19):11165-11173. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6b06179. Epub 2017 Sep 20.
Reducing food losses and waste is crucial to making our food system more efficient and sustainable. This is the first paper that quantifies the environmental impacts of food waste by distinguishing the various stages of the food value chain, 33 food categories that represent the whole food basket in Switzerland, and including food waste treatment. Environmental impacts are expressed in terms of climate change and biodiversity impacts due to water and land use. Climate change impacts of food waste are highest for fresh vegetables, due to the large amounts wasted, while the specific impact per kg is largest for beef. Biodiversity impacts are mainly caused by cocoa and coffee (16% of total) and by beef (12%). Food waste at the end of the food value chain (households and food services) causes almost 60% of the total climate impacts of food waste, because of the large quantities lost at this stage and the higher accumulated impacts per kg of product. The net environmental benefits from food waste treatment are only 5-10% of the impacts from production and supply of the wasted food. Thus, avoiding food waste should be a first-line priority, while optimizing the method of treatment is less relevant.
减少食物损失和浪费对于提高我们食品系统的效率和可持续性至关重要。本文首次通过区分食品价值链的各个阶段、涵盖瑞士整个食品篮的 33 种食品类别并纳入食物浪费处理，量化了食物浪费对环境的影响。环境影响以水和土地利用导致的气候变化和生物多样性影响来表示。由于大量浪费，新鲜蔬菜的食物浪费造成的气候变化影响最高，而每公斤的特定影响则以牛肉最大。生物多样性影响主要由可可和咖啡（占 16%）以及牛肉（占 12%）造成。食品价值链末端（家庭和食品服务）的食物浪费造成了食物浪费总气候变化影响的近 60%，因为在这个阶段损失了大量食物，而且每公斤产品的累积影响更高。从浪费食物的生产和供应中，食物浪费处理的净环境效益仅为 5-10%。因此，避免食物浪费应该是首要任务，而优化处理方法的相关性则较低。
