Total Recycle System of Food Waste for Poly-L-Lactic Acid Output

Abstract

Food waste is defined as wholesome edible material intended for human consumption arising at any point in the food supply chain that is instead discarded, lost, degraded or consumed by pests. The average consumer in Europe and North-America throws away ca. 100 kg of food per year according to a new report published by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (Annual report of FAO, 2011 & Parfitt et al., 2010). The study centers on food loss and food waste during the whole supply chain from production to consumption and finds that around “one-third of the edible parts of food produced for human consumption gets lost or wasted globally” representing about 1.3 billion ton per year. Around 20% of about 50 metric tons of waste that is generated annually in Japan is high moisture content refuse from kitchens and the food industries. The social, economic and environmental impacts of food waste are enormous. Such wastes readily decompose, generate odors, and sometimes cause illnesses. Municipal solid wastes including food waste are usually incinerated or land filled which ultimately generates many problems such as liberation of harmful compounds like dioxin and furans (Addink & Olie, 1995). Incineration facilities can be damaged by temperature fluctuations when food waste with high water content is burned in semi continuous process. In addition, it is difficult to recover energy from such waste incineration processes because the heating value of food waste is low (Harrison et al., 2000). This requires frequent and periodic collection and treatment of waste i.e. irrespective of their values. When excess food waste is disposed of in a landfill, it decomposes and is a significant source of methane gas, which is highly effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2 (Camobreco et al., 1999). Annually, food waste in the United States accounted for slightly more than 100 metric tons of methane originating from landfills. At the European level, the overall environmental impact is at least 170 metric tons of CO2 emitted annually.