An integrated framework for the assessment of life cycle costs and environmental impacts of food waste

Food waste prevention and valorization are needed to reduce environmental and economic costs of food systems. However, these measures will have different environmental and economic effects and tradeoffs. Therefore, a consistent and integrated life cycle framework is needed to generate reliable information for both individual stakeholders and policy makers. Within the H2020 project REFRESH (Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain), this study aimed to provide practitioners with guidance on how to combine Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (E-LCC) methodologies, with a focus on the impact of food waste, its prevention, and valorization. Building on existing standards, protocols and scientific literature, a framework, consisting of methodologically structured recommendations was developed for clearly defined assessment situations. The framework is composed of a section on study purpose definition, three decision trees - on assessment situation(s), costing approach, and type of study (footprint vs. intervention) - and two sets of recommendations. The framework will be tested in the next phase of the project on selected food chain side flows.