Sustainability Assessment of Food Redistribution Initiatives in Sweden

Sammanfattning

Food banks that redistribute surplus food from retailers and the food industry to people in need are not a new concept globally, but their connection to food waste prevention is new. As a result, new types of food redistribution units are emerging and diversifying to find new target groups and distribution methods. The aim of this study was to identify and study surplus food redistribution units in Sweden,and then to assess the impact on several sustainability indicators for selected redistribution units, in order to increase knowledge on the types of values these redistribution concepts generate. The methods used for analyzing the scenarios were Environmental Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and Social Life Cycle Assessment. The results showed that providing food bags to socially exposed people generated the largest reduction of greenhouse gas emissions per kg of redistributed food (−1.2 kg CO2eq./FU). Reprocessing surplus food to a high-quality end-product was attributed a high social value, due to job creation effects in the high number of working hours required per kg of redistributed food. With regard to economic impacts, all but two scenarios studied had monthly financial losses,and therefore needed other sources of financial support.

Nyckelord

sustainable development; food waste; life cycle assessment; environment; society; economy

Publicerad i

Resources
2020, volym: 9, nummer: 3, artikelnummer: 27

SLU författare

• Bergström, Pauline

  • Institutionen för energi och teknik, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Malefors, Christopher

  • Institutionen för energi och teknik, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Strid, Ingrid

  • Institutionen för energi och teknik, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Eriksson, Mattias

  • Institutionen för energi och teknik, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen (SDG)

SDG1 Ingen fattigdom
SDG2 Ingen hunger
SDG8 Anständiga arbetsvillkor och ekonomisk tillväxt
SDG12 Hållbar konsumtion och produktion

UKÄ forskningsämne

Miljövetenskap
Tvärvetenskapliga studier

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/resources9030027

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/104727