Search Results (9)

Consumers’ perception plays a central role in tackling food waste at the final consumption stage, specifically among university students. In Europe, it is estimated that 47 to 67 Mt of food waste is generated at the household level or at food service consumption, including university canteens. The present cross-country research, through an online-based questionnaire among university students, investigates students’ perception on food waste by distinguishing among two different categories: on the one side, students living with their family; on the other side, students living without their family. Further, the research distinguishes among students eating at university canteens, students preparing food at home, students purchasing take-away foods and students coming back home to eat. The study compares university students’ perception on food waste in Italy and in Poland, with the overarching purpose of shaping sustainable pathways and defining educational interventions to enhance students’ perception and awareness on food waste. Data are analyzed according to the Mann–Whitney U test and the Kruskal–Wallis test. Age is a pivotal factor and suggests a generational gap in awareness and attitude toward food waste, whereas sex significantly affects food waste perception in Poland but not in Italy, suggesting a more homogeneous perception across sexes. The research highlights the impacts that socio-economic and environmental crises (e.g., climate change, the Russia–Ukraine conflict, high inflation rates) have on food waste perception in Poland, which is closer to that of Russia and Ukraine compared to that of Italy, and provides academics, practitioners and public authorities with practical and theoretical insights toward food waste minimization. Full article

The sharp increase in rural tourism brings, on the one side, economic and social benefits among rural communities but, on the other, contributes to environmental challenges, specifically waste generation and natural resource consumption. From the ecological perspective, several pathways have been developed from local and global communities, such as prevention, reuse, recycling and energy recovery. The present research, by considering the need to boost separate collection and valorize organic waste among rural communities, evaluates the performance of a combined anaerobic digestion and composting plant in Southern Italy. The purpose is to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of collecting organic waste in rural areas and recovering it into biomethane, digestate and compost. First, the research develops the material flow analysis of a real, accessible and available anaerobic digestion and composting plant in Southern Italy. Secondly, on the basis of the results obtained, the research calculates the biomethane, digestate and compost potential in Southern Italy, considering the amount of organic waste produced in 14 rural communities identified as the most beautiful villages in Italy. Last, the research compares the advantages and disadvantages of producing biomethane through anaerobic digestion or resorting to community composting in rural areas. It results that the biomethane and compost potential through anaerobic digestion is 423,854 kg and 954,896 kg, respectively, but significant financial investments must be allocated in order to allow the municipalities to enhance the logistics and the separate collection facilities. The research highlights possible strategies under the circular economy lens to boost sustainability in rural areas, focusing on biomethane and compost production and providing policy implications in light of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Full article

Eggs represent one of the most consumed animal products worldwide. In Europe, over 366 million laying hens and 6.1 Mt of derived eggs have been estimated in 2020, and Italy represents the fourth largest producer (41 million hens and 0.79 Mt of eggs). Egg production has been identified as relatively environmental-friendly, but several environmental concerns have been recently raised considering the inefficient spent hens’ management. Spent hens are generally euthanized and composted or incinerated, producing greenhouse gases while at the same time significant nutrients are lost. First, the research reviews the egg supply chain characteristics and the alternative spent hens’ valorization pathways. Then, using the material flow analysis, the research quantifies and qualifies the consistencies of laying hens and protein content included in spent hens across Italy, providing a comprehensive assessment of the national scenario under an environmental and circular perspective. Furthermore, the research develops an inventory of the spent hens’ co-products and by-products in Italy, focusing on the flows of proteins for further environmental studies. The research has highlighted that over 13,948 t of proteins could be extracted, distinguishing between those embedded within offal, feathers and blood. In addition, spent hens can be used for human consumption, as well as for material or energy recovery through anaerobic digestion or microbial fermentation. Results are addressed to farmers, who are required to boost their environmental performances, and public authorities, who must implement sustainable strategies to collect spent hens. Full article

The measurement of material, energy, water, and waste flows in organizations represents a key challenge in the enhancement of a circular economy and sustainable development. In November 2022, the experimental technical standard “Measurement of Circularity—Methods and Indicators for Measuring Circular Processes in Organizations” (UNI/TS 11820:2022) was introduced, which provides, for the first time, a set of 71 quantitative, qualitative and semi-quantitative indicators for the assessment of the levels of circularity in organizations at the micro- and meso-level. First, the present exploratory research aimed to illustrate the main characteristics of the novel technical standard. Second, through an online-based questionnaire among 105 managers and employees working in various industrial sectors in Italy, the research aimed to investigate their level of awareness and perception of selected circular economy monitoring indicators. Such an analysis will help to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the current version of the technical standard. The research applied descriptive statistics and regression models to estimate the association between the perception of selected circular economy indictors and awareness of the concepts of “circular economy”, “lifecycle thinking”, “sustainable development” and “corporate social responsibility”. Although a limited number of respondents took part in the research, the research explored, for the first time, the main features related to the experimental UNI/TS 11820:2022, proposed an original analysis of users’ perception and awareness in its application, and suggested possible opportunities towards its enhancement from theoretical and managerial perspectives. Full article

Sustainable development and environmental issues related to ports and sea trade have highlighted the need to enhance transport and trade systems to include green practices, such as the realisation of dry ports. However, among the current studies investigating dry ports’ implications, only few papers explore their environmental impacts. Moreover, these latter papers approach the argument in a general way, leaving the ecological concerns associated with dry ports under-researched or marginally explored. In light of these premises, with the present review, the authors aim to develop a new conceptual framework on the dry ports’ environmental aspects in order to drive and support future academic research in this field. The methodology used by the authors is a systematic literature review on Scopus and Web of Science. They identified 107 relevant articles, of which 43 were included according to the authors’ propositions. The main results show that (i) there is no coordination between the various studies and systemic debates on dry ports’ environmental aspects; (ii) there are no standardised applicable tools; and (iii) there is no involvement among the various stakeholders. Additionally, a debate is also lacking under the lens of the Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030. Full article

Conventional and intensive agriculture systems represent an environmental challenge. This research aims at evaluating the economic and environmental implications of conventional and organic durum wheat production in Southern Italy by applying material flow analysis and the crop accounting method. The purpose is to evaluate and compare the natural resource consumption, waste generation and economic profitability of conventional and organic durum wheat farming, respectively. The functional unit is one hectare of cultivated land. System boundaries encompass all agronomic operations, from cradle to gate. The research applies a bottom-up approach and relies on either primary or secondary data. It emerges that organic durum wheat production reduces the use of synthetic chemical and phytosanitary products, as well as plastic waste, by up to 100%. Moreover, it decreases diesel use by 15%, with a consequent reduction in CO₂ emissions, and also avoids soil and groundwater pollution. From an economic perspective, gross income for conventionally farmed durum wheat is still 55% higher compared to organic production. Public authorities should boost environmental sustainability by supporting organic production from either an economic or a social perspective, by enhancing the sharing of best practices, by certification for farmers’ groups, by research and innovation, and by incentives in taxation. Overall, this research represents a further step towards the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. Full article

Material flow cost accounting (MFCA) represents an innovative tool to identify inefficiencies in the use of resources in agribusiness, measuring either mass flows or costs incurred along the entire supply chain. The purpose of the article is to estimate the meso-level ecological and economic impacts of food loss and waste in the Italian salty snack sector before and during the COVID-19 lockdown by applying MFCA. Furthermore, in the light of the European Commission Delegated Decision 2019/1597, it aims to assess whether MFCA is a suitable tool to support food waste management along the entire food supply, discussing implications for researchers, academics and managers, as well as for public authorities. The research explores potato chip production from the agricultural stage (either considering plant cultivation and harvest) to the final consumption stage. The functional unit is 1 ton of unpackaged chips produced. The Italian lockdown spurred an intense upsurge in snacking activities (i.e., the consumption of salty snacks), justifying the need to investigate an agri-food segment often overlooked from an economic, resources and waste management perspective. It emerges that the “chips system” generates production valued at EUR 461 million (78%) and costs associated with food loss and waste that exceed EUR 131 million (22%), revealing an economically important potential for savings through a reduction in undesirable negative material flows, or through the valorization of previously hidden material losses according to circular economy paradigms. This suggests that the company-level adoption of appropriate material and financial accounting systems could enhance both internal savings and collective benefits towards sustainable resources and waste management. Full article

Islam is the second-largest religion on a global scale. All around the world Muslims are estimated to comprise more than 1.9 billion people. Therefore, the demand for Halal commodities is expected to reach a high growth rate: thus, it is crucial to increase its global market’s reliability and traceability. Based on these grounds, the scope of this paper is to assess Halal food sustainability, examining the barriers and opportunities offered by the certification and blockchain tools. To this purpose, the authors carried out an integrative literature review, selecting 54 contributions in the Web of Science platform. Despite several limitations, such as the lack of a standardized framework or universally accepted and reliable certifying authorities, the implementation of blockchain technology has emerged as an interesting instrument to increase the trustworthiness and traceability of Halal foods. This tool could also help the development of protocols and standard procedures, ensuring hygienic and permitted products that may boost food safety and security. Besides, the enhancement of the Halal certification and the blockchain tool, even if several efforts are required in terms of innovation and cooperation by local authorities, industrial associations and leading consumers, could enhance fair trade, ethical business, green animal breeding and environmental economics, and hence sustainable development. Full article

The reduction of food waste, especially in households where more than half of its global quantity is generated, has become an increasing economic, social and environmental concern, and represents one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals within the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. In this context, the COVID-19 lockdown has significantly changed life, work and food consumption habits all over the world, highlighting food waste as a multi-sectorial issue. This paper explores current attitudes, perception and behavioral patterns related to food waste reduction at domestic consumption at the local scale (Apulia region, Italy), with the aim of identifying different types of “food wasters”. Through an online questionnaire and the application of a k-means clustering model, the authors focus on four emerging constructs in terms of food consumption and food waste habits after the COVID-19 lockdown at household level. Among three theoretical clusters, results have highlighted: (i) the paradox of the “green wasters”, which declared a high level of awareness of the food waste issue but also generates huge amounts of thrown away food; (ii) the “positive unawareness” of the “red wasters”, which have a slight notion of environment and sustainability but waste low quantities of food; (iii) the consistency of the “blue wasters”, which know of the food waste issue and convert theory into practice. Full article