Energy-emission-waste nexus of food deliveries in China

Abstract

Door - to - door cooked food deliveries are booming in China, so are the food packaging waste and the related environmental issues. This paper aims to overview the waste flows generated from the food delivery processes – including food packaging and delivery, which is followed by an analysis of the energy consumption and emissions of the waste treatment and the delivery. Based on the overview, this paper provides benchmarking of the energy consumption and emissions within the food delivery in China, which can be helpful for further studies regarding the energy minimisation and environmental impact mitigation in the food delivery supply chain. The results showed that in 2016, the waste generation of door - to - door cooked food deliveries in China was 1.68 Mt, including 1.33 Mt plastic waste and 0. 35 Mt of wooden chopsticks, which has not been properly recycled and/or reused. In 2016, the energy consumption for treating the food package waste is 58.89 GWh e , and the electricity needed for charging the electric bikes is 14.93 GWhe . The number of spent batteries from the delivery processes, deposited to waste, was 19,507, including 17,285 lead - acid batteries. The estimated GHG emission of energy consumption is 73.89 Gt CO 2eq . The conclusions are that the amount of waste from food deliveries is remarkable and still increasing. Encouraging the use of biodegradable food packaging can be helpful for reducing energy consumption and emissions of waste treatment. The energy consumption and GHG emissions covering the whole supply chain of food deliveries should be further discussed.