Life Cycle Assessment of Bioplastics and Food Waste Disposal Methods

The environmental impacts of five waste management scenarios for polylactic acid (PLA)-based bioplastics and food were quantified using life cycle assessment. Laboratory experiments have demonstrated the potential a pretreatment process to accelerate degradation modeled in two assessed. analyzed this study were: (1a) Anaerobic digestion (1b) with pretreatment; (2a) Compost; Compost (3) Landfill. Results suggested that pretreated disposed an anaerobic digester offers net total benefits (environmental advantages/offsets) several areas: ecotoxicity (?81.38 CTUe), eutrophication (0 kg N eq), cumulative energy demand (?1.79 MJ), global warming (0.19 CO2), human health non-carcinogenic (?2.52 CTuh). Normalized results across all impact categories show anaerobically digesting offer most offsets ecotoxicity, eutrophication, non-carcinogenic. Implications from can lead nutrient recovery diversify types fertilizers decrease landfill while decreasing dependency on non-renewable technologies. Thus, manage should be further explored as viable sustainable solution management.