Reducing the environmental impacts of Brazilian chicken meat production using different waste recovery strategies

Abstract

Chicken meat has achieved significant index rates worldwide, with Brazil leading production and exports. The agribusiness significance has led to strengthening attention to the environmental burdens produced by the poultry industry. This research considered reducing the environmental impacts in the life cycle of Brazilian chicken meat regarding strategies for recycling waste from the production process. An attributional cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment was performed, with the functional unit of 1 kg of slaughtered and unpacked chicken meat. The two suggested scenarios used: i) chicken bedding for biogas production and ii) chicken carcass waste as meat meals in feed production. Handling poultry litter for biogas production avoided methane and ammonia emissions, reducing over 50% of the environmental indicators of Climate Change, Terrestrial Acidification, and Freshwater Eutrophication. Reuse poultry waste to produce meat meals reduced from 12% to 55% in all impact categories, decreasing emissions from carcasses destined for decomposition in landfills and using less raw materials from bovine sources. Investigating the environmental performance of the chicken meat production chain encouraged the circularity of natural resources and waste recovery strategies in the system boundary, thus helping to accomplish Sustainable Development Goals 7, 9, 12, and 13 of the UN Agenda 2030