Report

LCA of domestic food waste processing

In collaboration with Tauw, CE Delft has carried out a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to assess the environmental impact of alternative routes for processing domestic food waste. The route with the least impact is digestion, for production of biogas and compost. Processing in a sewage treatment plant (STP) has certain, limited environmental benefits, but only if the waste is first digested. These benefits are similar to those of burning the waste in a waste incinerator of average efficiency. In each of the three routes (biowaste route, residual waste route, STP route) a best and worst case were assessed, to provide a range of values for the various parameters.