The COVID lockdown has affected food purchases and eating habits. In this regard, this short communication assesses the nutritional and environmental impacts of these changes during the COVID lockdown in Spain, by applying Life Cycle Assessment and an energy- and nutrient-corrected functional unit. Three environmental impacts were studied (Global Warming Potential, Blue Water Footprint and Land Use) and a total of seven weekly diet scenarios were designed: two pre-COVID diets for March and April in 2019 (MAR19, APR19), one COVID diet (COVID) and two alternative diets, one based on the National Dietary Guidelines (NDG) and another one on the Planetary Health Diet (PHD). Results show that the COVID diet had larger energy intake and lower nutritional quality, as well as higher environmental impacts (between 30 and 36%) than the pre-COVID eating patterns. Further research is needed to account for food affordability within this assessment, as well as to analyze how eating patterns will evolve after the COVID lockdown. Finally, the definition of short guidelines for sustainable food behaviors for future possible lockdowns is suggested, as well as the introduction of sustainable indicators within NDGs.
Incineration has become an attractive option for municipal solid waste (MSW) management, due to its several benefits. In fact, it allows volume and mass reduction of waste and energy recovery from MSW combustion. Nevertheless, MSW incineration (MSWI) produces three main types of residues: bottom ash (BA), fly ash (FA) and air pollution control (APC) residues, which require an adequate handling. BA is the most significant by-product from MSWI and is generally considered as nonhazardous waste. Instead, FAs are included as hazardous wastes because are characterised by high content of chlorides, heavy metals and organic compounds. The aim of this paper was to examine the characteristics of MSWI solid residues, the management and reuse of these wastes and their environmental assessment from a life cycle perspective. It was noted that the main components that make up the residues are lead and zinc as well as oxides, mainly CaO, SiO 2 and Al 2 O 3 . Furthermore, it is necessary to take into account the presence of PCDD/F which characterised FA and APC residues, mainly due to chlorine content. Chemical and physical properties of those residues make possible their reuse as construction material, as adsorbent, as well as in geotechnical and agricultural applications. Nevertheless, several studies have demonstrated that a drawback of the reuse of MSWI residues is the existence of heavy metals in elevated concentrations which may affect the environmental quality. In this regard, many studies were aimed to assess the environmental impact related to the introduction of MSWI residues as secondary material in several fields of application.
Low carbon options for the chemical industry include switching from fossil to renewable energy, adopting new low-carbon production processes, along with retrofitting current plants with carbon capture for ulterior use (CCU technologies) or storage (CCS). In this paper, we combine a dynamic Life Cycle Assessment (d-LCA) with economic analysis to explore a potential transition to low-carbon manufacture of formic acid. We propose new methods to enable early technical, environmental and economic assessment of formic acid manufacture by electrochemical reduction of CO2 (CCU), and compare this production route to the conventional synthesis pathways and to storing CO2 in geological storage (CCS). Both CCU and CCS reduce carbon emissions in particular scenarios, although the uncertainty in results suggests that further research and scale-up validation are needed to clarify the relative emission reduction compared to conventional process pathways. There are trade-offs between resource security, cost and emissions between CCU and CCS systems. As expected, the CCS technology yields greater reductions in CO2 emissions than the CCU scenarios and the conventional processes. However, compared to CCS systems, CCU has better economic potential and lower fossil consumption, especially when powered by renewable electricity. The integration of renewable energy in the chemical industry has an important climate mitigation role, especially for processes with high electrical and thermal energy demands. of CO2 for CCS and/or CCU applications in the future, if the power sector was to become 1 fully decarbonised (Mathy et al. 2018;McDowall et al. 2018). Furthermore, CCU could 2 be critical in the near-term to support the development of early CCS infrastructure. In this 3 overall context, a debate has arisen around the relative benefits of CCU and CCS, 4 introducing divergent perspectives about the role of CO2 utilization compared to storage 5 in mitigating climate change. Some studies have chosen to group them as carbon capture 6 and storage or utilisation (CCUS) (BEIS, 2018).
11The anchovy canning industry has high importance in the Cantabria Region (North Spain) from economic,
12social and touristic points of view. The Cantabrian canned anchovy is world-renowned owing to its handmade 13 and traditional manufacture. The canning process generates huge amounts of several food wastes, whose 14 suitable management can contribute to benefits for both the environment and the economy, closing the loop of 15 product life cycle. Life cycle assessment methodology was used in this work to assess the environmental 16 performance of two waste management alternatives: head and spine valorisation to produce fishmeal and fish 17 oil and anchovy meat valorisation to produce anchovy paste.
18Fuel oil production has been a hotspot of the valorisation of heads and spines, so several improvements 19 should be applied. With respect to anchovy meat valorisation, the production of polypropylene and glass for 20 packaging was the least environmentally friendly aspect of the process.
21Furthermore, the environmental characterisation of anchovy waste valorisation was compared with 22 incineration and landfilling alternatives. In both cases, the valorisation management options were the best 23 owing to the avoided burdens associated with the processes. Therefore, it is possible to contribute to the 24 circular economy in the Cantabrian canned anchovy industry.
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