Introducing the Green Protein Footprint method as an understandable measure of the environmental cost of anchovy consumption

Environmental performance of Cantabrian (Northern Spain) pelagic fisheries: Assessment of purse seine and minor art fleets under a life cycle approach

The perpetuation of fishing activity from an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable approach is essential to guarantee not only the future of coastal populations, but also the supply of high-value seafood for society and the safeguarding of cultural heritage. This article aims to assess the environmental performance associated with fishing fleet operations in Cantabria (northern Spain) under a life cycle thinking from a holistic approach. Thus, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied under a 'cradle-to-port' approach, setting the functional unit as 1 kg of fresh fish landed. Inventory data on the main inputs and outputs were collected from a sample of 57 vessels covering for the first time the main techniques, purse seine and minor art fisheries. The results identified that the vessel use stage was the responsible of most of the impacts. In line with the literature, diesel consumption stood as the chief hotspot in six of the seven impact categories analysed. Purse seiners got a value of 0.25 kg of fuel per kg of fish landed, while the performance of the minor art fleet showed significantly lower consumption (0.07). Regarding impacts on climate change, this study found a quantity of 1.00 and 0.34 kg CO₂ eq. per FU, for purse seine and minor arts, respectively. These figures were consistent with the expected results for pelagic fisheries. For the remaining indicators, purse seiners generally performed worse. The LCA methodology provided outcomes that allow the proposal of potential improvements and measures to foster the transition towards a more sustainable smart-fishing sector. Further research efforts should focus on the development and implementation of renewable energy and low-carbon vessel propulsion technologies.

A New Biorefinery Approach for the Full Valorisation of Anchovy Residues: Use of the Sludge Generated during the Extraction of Fish Oil as a Nitrogen Supplement in Anaerobic Digestion

Several anchovies species are captured all over the world; they are consumed fresh but also preserved by the industry, either by brine-fermentation or canning in oil. The industrial process generates large amounts of residue (about 50% of the original fish biomass) that is generally used to produce fish flour. In this paper, the advancement of a recently proposed process for the full valorisation of anchovies aimed at the extraction of fish oil (to be used as an omega-3 source) and at the production of biomethane through anaerobic digestion is presented. Particularly, in the experiments presented, a co-digestion of anchovy sludge—used as a nitrogen supplement—and market waste (5% and 95% on a Total Solids basis) was performed. Since the proposed extraction process uses, as a green-solvent, d-limonene, the well-known problems of toxicity for the anaerobic biomass must be overcome during the digestion process. As discussed below, the granular activated carbon (GAC) is used to reclaim and improve anaerobic digestion processes in a reactor displaying clear signs of inhibition. In fact, GAC demonstrates multiple benefits for anaerobic digestion, such as adsorption of toxic substances, biomass selection, and triggering of direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET).

Towards a Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus index: A review of nutrient profile models as a fundamental pillar of food and nutrition security

The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus approach should be promoted as a tool for sustainable management of resources through the interconnection of these three fundamental pillars. Particularly, food security must ensure healthy and balanced diets for everyone, but selecting individual indicators to assess all slants covered by this element is not an easy task. Hence, the objective of this paper is two-fold, to review nutrient profiling (NP) models that allow to categorize foods and evaluate diets based on their nutritional quality, and to choose the most appropriate model to be used within a WEF nexus index. To address this issue, a total of 159 documents were assessed, appraising the geographic distribution, and time evolution of the publications, as well as the characteristics and potential applications of the NP systems. The review concludes that the NRF9.3. model is the most liable option to be used in a WEF nexus index, presenting the best characteristics by means of the definition of scores and thresholds, and the use of an 'across-the-board' criteria and a reference quantity of 100 kcal, alongside offering higher ability to assess diets and foods than the other competitive model (HEI) through the evaluation of nutrients to encourage instead of foods. A secondary outcome of the review is the identification of the NP models as a useful tool to enable institutions with information to establish policies in the field of public health and facilitating the decision-making process according to the current healthy claims.

Eco-Efficiency of the Fisheries Value Chains in the Gambia and Mali

The Gambian and Malian fisheries and fish processing value chains are predominantly artisanal and represent a key source of protein and livelihoods, yet their eco-efficiency has not been studied to date. A Life Cycle Assessment was used to estimate the associated environmental impacts of those value chains and provide information on the eco-efficiency indicators, which relate technical efficiencies to environmental impacts. The results showed that industrial Gambian fleets' fuel use efficiency is rather low as compared with the global mean fuel use intensity (landed fish/consumed fuel) for both small pelagics and demersal fish. In Mali, the fuel use intensity of motorised artisanal fisheries is lower than the mean values for artisanal inland fisheries in developing countries, but the important increase of frozen imported fish from fish farming multiplies the estimated impacts by four. The least energy-intensive fisheries (cast nets and stow nets in Gambia and opportunistic fishers in Mali) feature better eco-efficiency scores. Based on the identified sources of inefficiencies, we suggest improvements in the landing/processing infrastructure and fishing units' engines, coupled with technical and business training and improved processing methods, to ameliorate seafood eco-efficiency and a stronger recognition of the importance of the artisanal fisheries subsector to overcome challenges and improving resource management.

Bibliographic mapping of post-consumer plastic waste based on hierarchical circular principles across the system perspective

The current dominating production and consumption model is based on the linear economy (LE) model, within which raw materials are extracted-processed-consumed-discarded. A circular economy (CE) constitutes a regenerative systemic approach to economic development which views waste as a valuable resource to be reprocessed back into the economy. In order to understand the circular strategy for a systemic change from an LE to a CE as a means of resolving the issue of plastic waste, this research aims to map current circular strategy trends across the system perspective contained in the literature relating to plastic CE literature. The novelty of the research lies in the mapping and review of the distribution of comprehensive circular strategies within the 9R framework across the entire system perspective (e.g. micro-meso-macro) down to its sub-levels in the literature on a plastic CE. The bibliographic mapping and systematic literature review iindicateed that the majority of the research focused on recycle (R8), followed by refuse (R0), reuse (R3), and reduce (R2). Certain circular strategies are more appropriate to handling certain plastic materials, despite CE's favoring of prevention and recycling over incineration. Recover (R9) is often used to process mixed and contaminated plastic. Recycling (R8) is the most popular circular strategy and the most applicable to plastic material with three recycle trends, namely; mechanical recycling, chemical recycling and DRAM (Distributed-Recycling-and-Additive-Manufacturing). Prolonging the product life through refurbishing (R5) is not applicable to plastic due to its material limitations. Reduce (R2) popularity as circular strategy reflects the preference to reduce consumption, either by launching campaigns to prevent waste or increasing production efficiency. Research on Rethink (R1) has largely focused on rethinking product design, consumer and organization behavior and perceptions of CE. Refuse (R0) strategy is an adoption of bio-based plastics which have a similar function to fossil-based plastics.

Life cycle assessment of fish and seafood processed products - A review of methodologies and new challenges

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied in many different sectors, but the marine products and seafood segment have received relatively little attention in the past. In recent decades, global fish production experienced sustained growth and peaked at about 179 million tonnes in 2018. Consequently, increased interest in the environmental implications of fishery products along the supply chain, namely from capture to end of life, was recently experienced by society, industry and policy-makers. This timely review aims to describe the current framework of LCA and its application to the seafood sector that mainly focused on fish extraction and processing, but it also encompassed the remaining stages. An excess of 60 studies conducted over the last decade, along with some additional publications, were comprehensively reviewed; these focused on the main LCA methodological choices, including but not limited to, functional unit, system boundaries allocation methods and environmental indicators. The review identifies key recommendations on the progression of LCA for this increasingly important sustaining seafood sector. Specifically, these recommendations include (i) the need for specific indicators for fish-related activities, (ii) the target species and their geographical origin, (iii) knowledge and technology transfer and, (iv) the application and implementation of key recommendations from LCA research that will improve the accuracy of LCA models in this sector. Furthermore, the review comprises a section addressing previous and current challenges of the seafood sector. Wastewater treatment, ghost fishing or climate change, are also the objects of discussion together with advocating support for the water-energy-food nexus as a valuable tool to minimize environmental negativities and to frame successful synergies.

Sustainable Agri-Food Processes and Circular Economy Pathways in a Life Cycle Perspective: State of the Art of Applicative Research

This study aims at providing a systematic and critical review on the state of the art of life cycle applications from the circular economy point of view. In particular, the main objective is to understand how researchers adopt life cycle approaches for the measurement of the empirical circular pathways of agri-food systems along with the overall lifespan. To perform the literature review, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol was considered to conduct a review by qualitative synthesis. Specifically, an evaluation matrix has been set up to gather and synthesize research evidence, by classifying papers according to several integrated criteria. The literature search was carried out employing scientific databases. The findings highlight that 52 case studies out of 84 (62% of the total) use stand-alone life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the benefits/impacts of circular economy (CE) strategies. In contrast, only eight studies (9.5%) deal with the life cycle costing (LCC) approach combined with other analyses while no paper deals with the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology. Global warming potential, eutrophication (for marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems), human toxicity, and ecotoxicity results are the most common LCA indicators applied. Only a few articles deal with the CE assessment through specific indicators. We argue that experts in life cycle methodologies must strive to adopt some key elements to ensure that the results obtained fit perfectly with the measurements of circularity and that these can even be largely based on a common basis.

Effects of Circular Economy Policies on the Environment and Sustainable Growth: Worldwide Research

The challenge of transitioning from a linear to a circular economy model is still ongoing and requires the development and application of new knowledge, leading to innovative, technological, and sustainable processes, products, and services. The evolution of global research on this topic from 2004 to 2019 was studied in this work. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis of 1366 articles was applied, producing results on the scientific productivity of the driving agents that most contribute to this theme. The findings show a growing interest, especially in the last four years, in the study of circular economy (CE) policies on the environment. The main subject area that articles address is environmental science. Five research lines have been identified, which mainly study the efficient management of energy resources and the economic factors that make the CE model possible: Environmental pollution and agricultural activity; waste management to avoid a negative environmental impact; improvement of the environmental impact through ecological products; the product life cycle, and the consequences of climate change. The implementation of CE policies will contribute to making economies less dependent and unprotected and more competitive. Global research has exhibited an upward trend during the period analyzed and has grown exponentially since 2015, coinciding with the publication of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda.

Environmental assessment of the food packaging waste management system in Spain: Understanding the present to improve the future

One-way packaging can represent up to half the environmental impacts of the food value chain and thus optimising its management is essential. Collective selective waste collection managed by authorised organisations (Extended Producer Responsibility, EPR), with or without Deposit-Refund Systems (DRS) are alternatives implemented at European level to handle this problem. Since there is no single simple formula that can be applied to every waste management system, this case study is focused on the entire Spanish model of one-way food packaging waste management, from collection of each fraction in specific containers to final treatment, considering eight different materials. For the analysis, six different impact categories were considered: abiotic depletion potential, global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, ozone depletion potential and photochemical ozone formation. Results reveal that the recycling stage is the main stage contributing to the environmental impacts, but the environmental savings related to the recovery of materials in this stage compensates these loads and the system must be considered advantageous for the environment. By contrast, sorting plants present the lowest contributions and is the least significant stage. Significant environmental improvements (close to 10%) would be achieved by addressing the total bulk collection flow to mechanical-biological treatment and increasing the selective collection of light and glass packaging waste. This study can serve to identify common drivers that contribute significantly to the development of an integrated approach to waste packaging management and as baseline for comparison studies with alternative waste recovery technologies and systems.