Greenhouse gas emissions associated with food packaging for online food delivery services in Australia

Despite the popularity of online food delivery systems in the foodservice industry, there have been few studies into customers’ decision-making process to use online food delivery services during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This study applied the technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine the factors affecting customers’ intention to use online food delivery services. Results showed (a) the perceived usefulness affects customer’s online food delivery usage directly and indirectly through customer attitude; (b) enjoyment and trust are also key factors determining behavior intention toward customer attitude using online food delivery services; (c) positive relationship between social influence and customer attitude; and (d) a positive relationship between customer attitude and behavior intention in the online food delivery service context. These findings provide theoretical and managerial implications that contribute to the online food delivery service industry.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 had a profound impact on the food service industry, forcing many restaurants and eateries to pivot towards online food delivery (OFD) services to survive. This shift, driven by restrictions on dining-in, has persisted even as dine-in services resumed, positioning OFD as an integral part of restaurant operations. This paper explores the impact of service quality in OFD, proposing a conceptual framework that links service quality dimensions—such as delivery speed, order accuracy, customer service, and platform usability—to the customer’s repurchase intention of food from the restaurant via its OFD services. By addressing these dimensions, restaurants can enhance customer satisfaction, leading to improved financial outcomes. This study aims to provide actionable insights for restaurant operators and contribute to the existing literature on service quality within the OFD sector.

Post-consumer plastic packaging waste from online food delivery services in South Korea

In China, the construction of asphalt pavement has a significant impact on the environment, and energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from asphalt pavement construction have been receiving increasing attention in recent years. At present, there is no universal criterion for the evaluation of GHG emissions in asphalt pavement construction. This paper proposes to define the system boundaries for GHG emissions from asphalt pavement by using a process-based life cycle assessment method. A method for evaluating GHG emissions from asphalt pavement construction is suggested. The paper reports a case study of GHG emissions from a typical asphalt pavement construction project in China. The results show that the greenhouse gas emissions from the mixture mixing phase are the highest, and account for about 54% of the total amount. The second highest GHG emission phase is the production of raw materials. For GHG emissions of cement stabilized base/subbase, the production of raw materials emits the most, about 98%. The GHG emission for cement production alone is about 92%. The results indicate that any measures to reduce GHG emissions from asphalt pavement construction should be focused on the raw materials manufacturing stage. If the raw materials production phase is excluded, the measures to reduce GHG emissions should be aimed at the mixture mixing phase.

ABSTRACTThe demand for fast, precise, and sensitive food safety methods is growing as consumers increasingly rely on online food delivery services. Food products shipped from South America to Europe can spend more than 21 days in transit, often resulting in deterioration, mould, or pathogen growth. Similar risks apply in the food service industry, where food may have been stored or handled improperly, leading to foodborne illness. This paper presents the Edispotter, an IoT‐based food quality monitoring system designed to address these and similar issues. Using Raspberry Pi and ESP32, the Edispotter collects essential food quality data through various sensors. The data are processed and stored in a Redis database within an Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environment, providing real‐time food‐based status updates via an Android application.

Technological advancement has brought significant changes in business processes. The food service industry continues to grow due to constant demand and strong competition. In recent years, several online food delivery platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy, and Uber Eats have emerged in India. Indian consumers have diverse tastes and preferences, which makes service quality an important factor for customer satisfaction. Online food delivery services aim to provide quality food at customers’ doorsteps within the promised time. Factors such as food quality, packaging, website design, delivery efficiency, and payment security influence customer satisfaction. This study focuses on understanding customers’ perception of e-service quality and their satisfaction with online food delivery services in Dindigul District.

This study examines whether the raw material productivity, export intensification, and environmental‐related technologies in the Nordic region (i.e., Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) drives the region's carbon neutrality target. By adopting both symmetric and asymmetric empirical approaches over the period 1990–2019, the study found that positive and negative shifts in environmental‐related technologies mitigates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the region with the former causing a larger impact. Furthermore, the findings reveal that a positive shift in raw material productivity mitigates GHG emissions while a negative shift in raw material productivity causes a surge in GHG emissions especially in the long‐run. Moreover, a positive (negative) shift in export intensity yields a decline (upsurge) in GHG emissions in the long‐run. In the symmetric framework, in both long‐ and short‐run, the result reveals that economic growth upsurges GHG emissions while raw material productivity for green growth and environmental‐related technologies mitigates GHG emissions. This demonstrates the efficient raw material productivity profile of the Nordic countries. Alongside the Granger causality inference, the result further informs that energy intensity is crucial to curbing GHG emissions in the region. Thus, the result from the study offers relevant policy instructions.

The objective of this study was to examine how Chinese consumers perceive and evaluate the safety of food purchased online and delivered directly to their doorstep. Additionally, the study aimed to analyze frequency differences in indicator usage across consumer demographic groups. A national survey was conducted, resulting in the collection of 1040 valid questionnaires. Specifically, this study addresses two key research questions: (1) What indicators do Chinese consumers use to evaluate the safety of online food delivery services (OFDS)? (2) Are there variations in indicator usage among different consumer groups? The data were processed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 27.0 and MS Excel 2016. Nonparametric tests and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were used to analyze the indicators. The results revealed that “sensory perception” and food package were the commonly employed indicators. However, with the existence of more reliable food safety indicators, consumers rarely utilize them. Moreover, significant variations exist in the use of indicators among consumer groups of different sex, online ordering frequencies, and cohabitation with the elderly. In general, individuals who frequently use food delivery services and reside with older adults are considered “finicky consumers” compared to their counterparts. These findings imply the need for education to foster rationality and discernment among consumers. Furthermore, OFDS providers can leverage these findings to develop tailored strategies that address customer needs and enhance their food safety reputation.

Evaluation of GHG emissions from the production of magnesia refractory raw materials in Dashiqiao, China

The substitution of electric vehicle (EV) for conventional gasoline vehicles is a promising new way to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emission in China. This study compared the environmental impact on climate change between electric vehicle power system and internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) power system. A life cycle analysis model was built with the GaBi software to analyze the GHG emission with IPCC methodology. The life cycle of vehicle was divided into four phases including raw material production phase, auto parts production and assembly phase, transportation phase and use phase. Three scenarios of the electric power mix were carried out for the sensitivity analysis. Overall, the global warming potential (GWP) of ICEV was reduced by 69.8% compared with that of EV. However, when considering the whole vehicle use phase, EV provided 45% benefits of carbon reduction than ICEV. The results of sensitivity analysis showed that GHG emission decreased with improving of cleaner energy utilization. The results concluded that EV can reduce GHG emission compared to ICEV. Electricity consumption in the use stage, raw materials stage and production stage were the key processes for controlling GHG emission during EV management.

BackgroundPolicies to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can yield public health benefits by also reducing emissions of hazardous co-pollutants, such as air toxics and particulate matter. Socioeconomically disadvantaged communities are typically disproportionately exposed to air pollutants, and therefore climate policy could also potentially reduce these environmental inequities. We sought to explore potential social disparities in GHG and co-pollutant emissions under an existing carbon trading program—the dominant approach to GHG regulation in the US and globally.Methods and findingsWe examined the relationship between multiple measures of neighborhood disadvantage and the location of GHG and co-pollutant emissions from facilities regulated under California’s cap-and-trade program—the world’s fourth largest operational carbon trading program. We examined temporal patterns in annual average emissions of GHGs, particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds, and air toxics before (January 1, 2011–December 31, 2012) and after (January 1, 2013–December 31, 2015) the initiation of carbon trading. We found that facilities regulated under California’s cap-and-trade program are disproportionately located in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods with higher proportions of residents of color, and that the quantities of co-pollutant emissions from these facilities were correlated with GHG emissions through time. Moreover, the majority (52%) of regulated facilities reported higher annual average local (in-state) GHG emissions since the initiation of trading. Neighborhoods that experienced increases in annual average GHG and co-pollutant emissions from regulated facilities nearby after trading began had higher proportions of people of color and poor, less educated, and linguistically isolated residents, compared to neighborhoods that experienced decreases in GHGs. These study results reflect preliminary emissions and social equity patterns of the first 3 years of California’s cap-and-trade program for which data are available. Due to data limitations, this analysis did not assess the emissions and equity implications of GHG reductions from transportation-related emission sources. Future emission patterns may shift, due to changes in industrial production decisions and policy initiatives that further incentivize local GHG and co-pollutant reductions in disadvantaged communities.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study to examine social disparities in GHG and co-pollutant emissions under an existing carbon trading program. Our results indicate that, thus far, California’s cap-and-trade program has not yielded improvements in environmental equity with respect to health-damaging co-pollutant emissions. This could change, however, as the cap on GHG emissions is gradually lowered in the future. The incorporation of additional policy and regulatory elements that incentivize more local emission reductions in disadvantaged communities could enhance the local air quality and environmental equity benefits of California’s climate change mitigation efforts.

With the rapid development and democratization of the internet and smart phone industry, onlinefood delivery services have become increasingly popular all over the globe, namely in China. One of the unfortunate drawbacks of these delivery services is that they mainly use single-use plastics as food packaging, therefore generating large amounts of disposable food containers to meet demand. Such plastic containers reach the end of their service life after a single meal, and are then discarded as plastic waste. The sheer amount of plastic food containers discarded in this manner exacerbates various environmental issues, including one that is invisible to the naked eye: microplastic pollution. This minireview summarizes the history of food delivery services in China, from orders made face-to-face to digital orders, as well as the consequences introduced by the tremendous amounts of plastic waste generated by the food delivery services. Microplastic pollution could be mitigated to a certain extent by improving the classification, handling and management of single-use plastic containers in China. Furthermore, additional studies focusing on microplastic pollution caused by food delivery services are needed, especially as the use of these services is on the rise worldwide.

Major US electric utility climate pledges have the potential to collectively reduce power sector emissions by one-third

At present, urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from different wastewater treatment stages are attracting increasing attention. Based on the Guidelines of the China Greenhouse Gas List Compilation (Trial) and the IPCC National Greenhouse Gas List Guidelines in 2006, this paper evaluated urban GHG emissions from wastewater treatment in China from 2011 to 2020. The contribution rates of GHG emissions to the total GHG emissions were calculated for the different wastewater treatment stages. The variations in annual GHG emissions and differences in GHG emissions among different regions and provinces were also analyzed. The total amount of equivalent CO2 emissions reaches 1478.51 million tons, and the annual average amount of equivalent CO2 emissions from 2011 to 2020 is 147.9 million tons, which shows a trend of decreasing first and then increasing. The distribution of GHG emissions from wastewater treatment is uneven among provinces and regions; Guangdong Province has the highest emission, while the Xizang autonomous Region has the lowest. The correlation and contribution rate analysis revealed that paper production and chemical and side food production could discharge a large amount of wastewater with a high COD content, which may have an important impact on GHG emissions during the wastewater treatment stages. According to the study results, CH4 accounts for the largest proportion (63.08%) of the total GHG emissions. The most important source of CH4 comes from the industrial wastewater treatment stage. The annual average CO2 emissions account for 22.24% of the total GHG emissions, which are mainly from the power and chemical consumption stage. The annual average N2O emissions account for 14.68% of the total GHG emissions and are mainly from the wastewater collection and discharge stage. Therefore, in the future, GHG emission reduction strategies should focus on CH4 emissions in the industrial wastewater treatment stage and develop CH4 recycling and utilization technologies.

Abstract. To track progress towards keeping global warming well below 2 ∘C or even 1.5 ∘C, as agreed in the Paris Agreement, comprehensive up-to-date and reliable information on anthropogenic emissions and removals of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is required. Here we compile a new synthetic dataset on anthropogenic GHG emissions for 1970–2018 with a fast-track extension to 2019. Our dataset is global in coverage and includes CO2 emissions, CH4 emissions, N2O emissions, as well as those from fluorinated gases (F-gases: HFCs, PFCs, SF6, NF3) and provides country and sector details. We build this dataset from the version 6 release of the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR v6) and three bookkeeping models for CO2 emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF). We assess the uncertainties of global greenhouse gases at the 90 % confidence interval (5th–95th percentile range) by combining statistical analysis and comparisons of global emissions inventories and top-down atmospheric measurements with an expert judgement informed by the relevant scientific literature. We identify important data gaps for F-gas emissions. The agreement between our bottom-up inventory estimates and top-down atmospheric-based emissions estimates is relatively close for some F-gas species (∼ 10 % or less), but estimates can differ by an order of magnitude or more for others. Our aggregated F-gas estimate is about 10 % lower than top-down estimates in recent years. However, emissions from excluded F-gas species such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are cumulatively larger than the sum of the reported species. Using global warming potential values with a 100-year time horizon from the Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global GHG emissions in 2018 amounted to 58 ± 6.1 GtCO2 eq. consisting of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion and industry (FFI) 38 ± 3.0 GtCO2, CO2-LULUCF 5.7 ± 4.0 GtCO2, CH4 10 ± 3.1 GtCO2 eq., N2O 2.6 ± 1.6 GtCO2 eq., and F-gases 1.3 ± 0.40 GtCO2 eq. Initial estimates suggest further growth of 1.3 GtCO2 eq. in GHG emissions to reach 59 ± 6.6 GtCO2 eq. by 2019. Our analysis of global trends in anthropogenic GHG emissions over the past 5 decades (1970–2018) highlights a pattern of varied but sustained emissions growth. There is high confidence that global anthropogenic GHG emissions have increased every decade, and emissions growth has been persistent across the different (groups of) gases. There is also high confidence that global anthropogenic GHG emissions levels were higher in 2009–2018 than in any previous decade and that GHG emissions levels grew throughout the most recent decade. While the average annual GHG emissions growth rate slowed between 2009 and 2018 (1.2 % yr−1) compared to 2000–2009 (2.4 % yr−1), the absolute increase in average annual GHG emissions by decade was never larger than between 2000–2009 and 2009–2018. Our analysis further reveals that there are no global sectors that show sustained reductions in GHG emissions. There are a number of countries that have reduced GHG emissions over the past decade, but these reductions are comparatively modest and outgrown by much larger emissions growth in some developing countries such as China, India, and Indonesia. There is a need to further develop independent, robust, and timely emissions estimates across all gases. As such, tracking progress in climate policy requires substantial investments in independent GHG emissions accounting and monitoring as well as in national and international statistical infrastructures. The data associated with this article (Minx et al., 2021) can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5566761.