Municipal food waste management options: Climate and economic impacts

Abstract

This section summarizes and expounds on work performed in a 2012 study of sustainable food waste management alternatives published by the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF 2012). The study evaluated economic, environmental, social, and operational impacts associated with food waste management options for a hypothetical community of 100,000 residents. The reader is referred to the original study for more detail on the assumptions and approach used in the evaluation described in this section. An additional option—de-centralized composting—is included below for the purposes of this publication.