Performance evaluation model of a pilot food waste collection system in Suzhou City, China.
This paper analyses the food waste collection and transportation (C&T) system in a pilot project in Suzhou by using a novel performance evaluation method. The method employed to conduct this analysis involves a unified performance evaluation index containing qualitative and quantitative indicators applied to data from Suzhou City. Two major inefficiencies were identified: a) low system efficiency due to insufficient processing capacity of commercial food waste facilities; and b) low waste resource utilization due to low efficiency of manual sorting. The performance evaluation indicated that the pilot project collection system's strong points included strong economics, low environmental impact and low social impact. This study also shows that Suzhou's integrated system has developed a comprehensive body of laws and clarified regulatory responsibilities for each of the various government departments to solve the problems of commercial food waste management. Based on Suzhou's experience, perspectives and lessons can be drawn for other cities and areas where food waste management systems are in the planning stage, or are encountering operational problems.
State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10084, China. Electronic address: wenzg@tsinghua.edu.cn.
Zongguo
Z
Wen
State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10084, China.
Yuanjia
Y
Wang
State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10084, China.
Djavan
D
De Clercq
D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D004777:Environment; D019649:Food Industry; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010865:Pilot Projects; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*
Commercial food waste; Food waste-to-resources; Performance evaluation method; Waste collection