As much as one-third of the food intentionally grown for human consumption is never consumed and is therefore wasted, with significant environmental, social and economic ramifications. An increasing number of publications in this area currently consider different aspects of this critical issue, and generally focus on proactive approaches to reduce food waste, or reactive solutions for more efficient waste management. In this context, this paper takes a holistic approach with the aim of achieving a better understanding of the different types of food waste, and using this knowledge to support informed decisions for more sustainable management of food waste. With this aim, existing food waste categorizations are reviewed and their usefulness are analysed. A systematic methodology to identify types of food waste through a nine-stage categorization is used in conjunction with a version of the waste hierarchy applied to food products. For each type of food waste characterized, a set of waste management alternatives are suggested in order to minimize environmental impacts and maximize social and economic benefits. This decision-support process is demonstrated for two case studies from the UK food manufacturing sector. As a result, types of food waste which could be managed in a more sustainable manner are identified and recommendations are given. The applicability of the categorisation process for industrial food waste management is discussed.

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Citation: COLWILL, J.A., WRIGHT, E.I. and RAHIMIFARD, S., 2012. A holistic approach to design support for bio-polymer based packaging. Journal of Polymers and the Environment, 20, pp. 11121123. INTRODUCTIONThe development of bio-polymers has been driven largely in response to the growing concerns regarding the sustainability of conventional polymers and the environmental pollution caused by plastic packaging waste (Lim et al. 2008;Shafiee and Topal 2009).The majority of plastics in use today are manufactured from fossil fuels such as crude oil, natural gas and coal (American Chemistry Council 2010). These non-renewable resources are being rapidly depleted by a range of human demands of which fuel for energy production, heating and transport is the largest user: fossil fuels currently provide approximately 80% of the world's primary energy needs (Goldemberg 2006 2011).Bio-polymers offer a potential solution to both of these dilemmas. Firstly, in terms of production feedstock, synthetic polymers derived from fossil fuels such as crude oil, are replaced by polymers derived from renewable resources such as plants and algae other environmental impact studies in this area, the overall environmental benefits of these materials in packaging applications remains contentious and contradictory.( Colwill et al. 2009). This is particularly significant as, in contrast to conventional polymers, the rationale to adopt bio-polymers in packaging is justified primarily on a perceived environmental benefit often at an additional cost. The significance of environmental and sustainable factors in the initial strategic decision to adopt biopolymers raises the importance of ensuring that these factors are integrated fully into the subsequent design and development stages. Whilst this has been achieved to some degree with environmental considerations, with sustainability, integrating social impacts has proved more problematic (Dreux-Gerphagnon and Haoues 2011;Ioannou and Veshagh 2011;Kondoh and Mishima 2011.). This paper builds on existing published research in the area of eco-design and sustainability extending the initial research by the author on bio-polymer packaging eco-design support (Colwill et al, 2011). PACK DESIGN PROCESSESThe processes discussed in this paper are based on the design of primary packaging for consumer and retail markets. Primary packaging is usually in direct contact with the product and forms the primary sales unit as retailed to the consumer. In addition to the creation of a new pack from first principles, the re-design and re-engineering of packaging is particularly applicable to bio-polymers, as material substitution may be effected without any noticeable change to the pack structure or appearance. The traditional 'conventional polymer' packaging design processThe traditional design process of a primary pack has been developed from practical experience over 50 design projects across a range of industry and product sectors and Figure 1a as an alternative process stage parallel to the feasibility stage i...

Unless strategies are adopted to ensure materials remain in circulation within the economy, the manufacturing sector may be unable to support increasing demand from a growing global population. The purpose of this research is to present a framework for manufacturers to aid in the formulation of ecologically embedded strategy. The framework proposes five steps which integrate corporate, business, operations and sustainability strategy in a holistic manner with operations strategy informing business strategy. Qualitative comparative analysis is implemented to identify the causal characteristics of ecologically embedded products which are then used to select two cases for the application of process tracing (PT). Product case studies indicate a failure to communicate provenance, quality and lifecycle information to consumers, and hence, the slowing or closing of loops as part of a circular economy is not being effectively realised. PT confirms the feasibility of the framework for ecocentric strategy formulation in manufacturing. Manufacturers, policymakers and investors may use this framework to leverage the benefits of ecological embeddedness to enable continued growth and future-proofing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to food insecurity in developed countries. Despite adequate levels of agricultural production, consumers experienced demand-induced scarcity. Understanding the effects on nutrition and the environment is limited, yet critical to informing ecologically embedded mitigation strategies. To identify mitigation strategies, we investigated wheat flour and egg retail shortages in the United Kingdom (UK), focusing on consumer behavior during the COVID-19 lockdown. The 6 Steps for Quality Intervention Development (6SQuID) framework informed the methodology. Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods were used to pinpoint the causes of the shortages, and ecological impacts of consumer behavior were related using survey results (n = 243) and environmental and nutritional databases. This research confirmed consumers' narrowed consideration set, willingness to pay, and significant reliance on processed foods which indicates agronomic biofortification, breeding strategies, selective imports and improved processed food quality are important mitigation strategies. We identified positive and negative synergies in consumer, producer and retailer behavior and related these to mitigation strategies in support of a circular bio-economy for food production. We found that the substitutes or alternative foods consumed during the COVID-19 lockdown were nutritionally inadequate. We identified the most ecological substitute for wheat flour to be corn flour; and for eggs, yogurt. Our findings also indicate that selenium deficiency is a risk for the UK population, especially to the increasing fifth of the population that is vegetarian. Due to the need to implement short-, medium-, and long-term mitigation strategies, a coordinated effort is required by all stakeholders.