Estimation and analysis of municipal food waste and resource utilization potential in China

With rapid urbanization, municipal food waste (MFW), which is an important part of municipal solid waste, has attracted considerable attention owing to its environmental impact and polluting nature. There has been little research on the quantity and distribution of food waste (FW) produced in China. This study focused on a systematic estimation and analysis of MFW produced in administrative divisions at the prefecture-level and above in China for the first time. From the national level to the prefectural level, with the shrinking of the research units, more intuitive support was obtained for relevant decisions. On the basis of the estimated results, suggestions are provided for proper FW treatment technologies and operational scale of the facilities, and the resource utilization potential has also been estimated. The distribution results indicated that FW characteristics have great variability in the different economic regions of China. Furthermore, it was found that the available FW has a resource utilization potential that is equivalent to 4669.1 million m³ of biogas, 3.6 million tons of biodiesel, and 1.5 million tons of organic fertilizer (dry weight). It is worth mentioning that this amount of biogas can replace 7.5 million tons of standard coal. However, only a small part of the generated MFW can be treated in the existing treatment plants in China. Finally, current key bottlenecks of FW treatment in China have been discussed, and detailed suggestions are presented for further improvement of MFW management.