3.5 Food and garden waste
3.5.1 Presentation
The definition of ‘municipal food and garden waste’ is quite vague. It refers to the waste containing carbon
compounds, generated in households and similar sources. In the waste industry, the term ‘organic’ usually refers
to waste deriving from animal and plant materials. Various waste fractions are included in this stream, but two
main categories can be defined: food or kitchen waste and garden waste.
In LCA studies, the scope of the study determines the genre of waste included. Therefore, there might be studies
that focus on a very specific waste streams, such as branches in garden waste or on a very general grouping
such as the entire organic part of municipal waste (i.e. kitchen, garden, paper and wood waste). Paper and wood
are usually excluded from this category and examined separately, but there are cases in which these fractions are
included in the organic part, especially if an appropriate technology is examined (e.g. central compost) or a
collection scheme is simulated.
In this report, seven studies were located that fulfil all the preconditions and qualify for further analysis. Some of
these studies refer to the same waste stream, but some others only examine a part of organic waste, according
to their scope as it is expressed in the corresponding functional unit. There are two studies (studies 6 and 7)
investigating organic waste, two (3 and 4) focusing on food waste, one on garden waste (no 2), one (no 5) for
mixed organic waste (defined as a weighted average of food discards and yard trimmings) and study no 1 refers
to bio-waste from households (thought as a mix of household organic waste and garden/wood waste). The
selected publications are presented in Table 65 below and the materials they examine in Table 66.
Table 65 Presentation of the selected studiesStudy
number
Title
Main
author
Year
Geographical
scope
1
Using LCA to evaluate impacts and
resources conservation potential of
composting: A case study of the Asti
District in ItalyBlengini 2008 Italy
2
Environmental assessment of gardenwaste management in Århus Kommune Boldrin^2009 Denmark^
3
Life cycle assessment of food waste
management optionsLundie 2005 Australia
4
Life cycle assessment of energy from solid
wasteFinnveden 2000 Sweden
5
Solid waste management and greenhouse
gases: A life cycle assessment of emissions
and sinksUS EPA 2006 USA
6
Klimaregnskap for avfallshåndtering
(Climate accounting for waste
management)Raandal 2009 Norway
7
Environmental assessment of waste
systems for municipal waste in Århus
Kommune