Regionalized life-cycle monetization can support the transition to sustainable rural food waste management in China

Innovative recycling technologies can help curb food waste, yet their implementation often involves trade-offs among different environmental issues and among environmental, economic and social issues. Monetization can provide a solution to integrate all environmental impacts across the life cycle of food waste and to enable a normalized evaluation with economic accounting. Herein, a Chinese regionalized monetization model was applied to various indicators related to the environment, resource depletion and human health to assess ten typical rural food waste recycling technologies in Zhejiang province. The results reveal that biodrying and maturity and two bioconversion options are promising solutions, considering both environmental and economic impacts as well as the shifting of environmental impacts among different compartments as hidden risks. The monetization method proposed here could be applied to other sectors to support decision-making towards more sustainable development. Food waste is a global challenge that is strongly linked to climate change, resource consumption and human health. This study proposes a monetization approach based on a set of life-cycle assessment indicators that enables the comparison of food waste recycling technologies. The method was applied to food waste recycling in a Chinese province, revealing trade-offs and the effectiveness of different solutions.