scholarly journals Circular economy in the brewing chain

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-69
Author(s):  
Alessio Cimini ◽  
Mauro Moresi
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Market Price ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Packaging Materials ◽  
Recycled Pet ◽  
Beer Consumption ◽  
Brewing Process ◽  
Definitive Solution ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Brewery Wastes

The main aim of this review was to check for the applicability of the concept of circular economy to brewing chain. By analyzing the beer brewing process, it was possible to identify the main brewery wastes formed and packaging materials used as well as their range of composition and yields. In order to reduce the contribution of packaging material to the carbon footprint of beer, it would be necessary to replace one-way containers used nowadays with lighter, reusable, or recycled ones. Even if the contribution of beer consumption phase was taken into account, there was no definitive solution about the less environmentally impacting beer packaging format. The direct management of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) packaging for liquid foodstuffs could make available 100% recycled PET flakes to be reconverted into food-grade bottles with minimum downcycling to other non-food usage. The countless potential uses of brewery wastes in nutritional and biotechnological fields were tested in laboratory by disregarding any cost–benefit or market analysis. This was mainly because the estimated market price of dried brewer’s spent grain (BSG) resulted to be about 450% higher than that of conventional lignocellulose residues. All the alternative uses hailed in the literature appeared to be more useful for publishing articles than for defining any economically feasible reusing procedure for all brewery wastes. Owing to their high moisture content, such wastes are so perishable as to prevent their safe usage in the human food chain. Currently, their use as-is in animal feeding is the disposal method not only economically feasible but also able to reduce the greenhouse gas load of beer packed in glass bottles (GB) by about one-third of that associated with packaging materials. Not by chance, it is practiced by most industrial and craft breweries.

Evaluating treatment pathways for managing packaging materials from construction of a solar photovoltaic power station

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 1345-1357
Author(s):  
Turlough F Guerin
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Soil Improvement ◽  
Packaging Materials ◽  
Sustainable Business ◽  
Treatment Pathways ◽  
End Use ◽  
Solar Electricity ◽  
Utility Scale

The reuse of end-of-life packaging materials (EOLPM) on site represents, particularly for remote sites, an important contribution to sustainable business practice because it provides a higher value end use when used to develop on-site mulch to enable soil improvement, thereby reducing transport emissions (in relation to the least preferred option of off-site disposal to landfill), lowering costs and offering employment to local contractors. The objective of the study was to demonstrate a local application of the circular economy for EOLPM to a utility-scale solar electricity (USSE) construction site. Although the principles of the circular economy could not be applied fully at the site, it was possible to demonstrate that EOLPM can be reused on site for a higher value than off-site disposal would give. Given the common occurrence of these materials in the rapidly growing renewable energy sector, this represents an important step forward for the sector internationally. The study is the first of its type reported, and the methods used for characterization of the EOLPM included a range of organic and inorganic chemical analyses and phytotoxicity testing, which were followed by an environmental and financial cost-benefit analysis. The selected option of on-site reuse of the materials as a mulch had a global warming potential of 58 t CO2e compared with the business as usual option (transport to landfill) of 3145 t CO2e. The results also demonstrated the broader potential for using EOLPM from USSE sites for soil improvement at remote locations rather than transporting these materials off site for disposal or reuse.

scholarly journals Nanocomposites for Food Packaging Applications: An Overview

Nanomaterials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Jawad Sarfraz ◽  
Tina Gulin-Sarfraz ◽  
Julie Nilsen-Nygaard ◽  
Marit Kvalvåg Pettersen
Keyword(s):  
Polymer Nanocomposites ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Food Packaging ◽  
Antioxidant Properties ◽  
Nanocomposite Materials ◽  
Consumer Acceptability ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Packaging Materials ◽  
Mechanical And Thermal Properties ◽  
Low Concentrations

There is a strong drive in industry for packaging solutions that contribute to sustainable development by targeting a circular economy, which pivots around the recyclability of the packaging materials. The aim is to reduce traditional plastic consumption and achieve high recycling efficiency while maintaining the desired barrier and mechanical properties. In this domain, packaging materials in the form of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) can offer the desired functionalities and can be a potential replacement for complex multilayered polymer structures. There has been an increasing interest in nanocomposites for food packaging applications, with a five-fold rise in the number of published articles during the period 2010–2019. The barrier, mechanical, and thermal properties of the polymers can be significantly improved by incorporating low concentrations of nanofillers. Furthermore, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties can be introduced, which are very relevant for food packaging applications. In this review, we will present an overview of the nanocomposite materials for food packaging applications. We will briefly discuss different nanofillers, methods to incorporate them in the polymer matrix, and surface treatments, with a special focus on the barrier, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties. On the practical side migration issues, consumer acceptability, recyclability, and toxicity aspects will also be discussed.

Bioprotective Potential of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Malting and Brewing

2008 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
pp. 1724-1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSAN ROUSE ◽  
DOUWE VAN SINDEREN
Keyword(s):  
Lactic Acid ◽  
Lactic Acid Bacteria ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Textural Properties ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Brewing Industry ◽  
Beer Brewing ◽  
Brewing Process ◽  
Materials Used

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are naturally associated with many foods or their raw ingredients and are popularly used in food fermentation to enhance the sensory, aromatic, and textural properties of food. These microorganisms are well recognized for their biopreservative properties, which are achieved through the production of antimicrobial compounds such as lactic acid, diacetyl, bacteriocins, and other metabolites. The antifungal activity of certain LAB is less well characterized, but organic acids, as yet uncharacterized proteinaceous compounds, and cyclic dipeptides can inhibit the growth of some fungi. A variety of microbes are carried on raw materials used in beer brewing, rendering the process susceptible to contamination and often resulting in spoilage or inferior quality of the finished product. The application of antimicrobial-producing LAB at various points in the malting and brewing process could help to negate this problem, providing an added hurdle for spoilage organisms to overcome and leading to the production of a higher quality beer. This review outlines the bioprotective potential of LAB and its application with specific reference to the brewing industry.

Sustainable Distribution Design: Contrasting Disposable, Recyclable, and Reusable Strategies for Packaging Materials Using a Total Cost Analysis With an Illustration of Milk Distribution

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Satya Kanaka Nagendra Jayanty ◽  
William J. Sawaya ◽  
Michael D. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Packaging Materials ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Specific Product ◽  
Cost Structures ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Total Cost Analysis ◽  
Plastic Containers

Engineers, policy makers, and managers have shown increasing interest in increasing the sustainability of products over their complete lifecycles and also from the ‘cradle to grave’ or from production to the disposal of each specific product. However, a significant amount of material is disposed of in landfills rather than being reused in some form. A sizeable proportion of the products being dumped in landfills consist of packaging materials for consumable products. Technological advances in plastics, packaging, cleaning, logistics, and new environmental awareness and understanding may have altered the cost structures surrounding the lifecycle use and disposal costs of many materials and products resulting in different cost-benefit trade-offs. An explicit and well-informed economic analysis of reusing certain containers might change current practices and results in significantly less waste disposal in landfills and in less consumption of resources for manufacturing packaging materials. This work presents a method for calculating the costs associated with a complete process of implementing a system to reuse plastic containers for food products. Specifically, the different relative costs of using a container and then either disposing of it in a landfill, recycling the material, or reconditioning the container for reuse and then reusing it are compared explicitly. Specific numbers and values are calculated for the case of plastic milk bottles to demonstrate the complicated interactions and the feasibility of such a strategy.

Types of Packaging Materials Used for Foods

2020 ◽  
pp. 905-922
Author(s):  
Robert H. Driscoll ◽  
Mohammad Shafiur Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Packaging Materials ◽  
Materials Used

scholarly journals Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Concepción Garcés-Ayerbe ◽  
Pilar Rivera-Torres ◽  
Inés Suárez-Perales ◽  
Dante Leyva-de la Hiz
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Preventive Practices ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
Common Barriers

The Circular Economy is a paradigm shift attempting to replace the end-of-life concept with reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering materials and to slow down, close and narrow material and power loops. This concept is much discussed in the academic literature, but limited progress has been accomplished so far regarding its empirical analysis. The objective of this work is to study circular economy practices and analyze in depth the circular economy behavior in European firms. We find that firms’ circular economy behavior is a gradual process where measures are implemented gradually, starting with activities involving control measures and ending with putting preventive practices in place. We discovered also that the most proactive companies in implementing circular economy measures generally come across certain common barriers such as administrative processes, regulations and a lack of human resources to perform these practices, while firms that have not implemented circular economy measures view financing, investment and cost–benefit barriers as the most significant. Significant efforts need to be undertaken by firms to accomplished circular economy. Also circular economy regulation should be improved to make it easier for companies to implement strategies that will make them more sustainable.

scholarly journals Re-Processing of Multilayer Plastic Materials as a Part of the Recycling Process: The Features of Processed Multilayer Materials

Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 2517
Author(s):  
Ville Lahtela ◽  
Shekhar Silwal ◽  
Timo Kärki
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Characteristics ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Packaging Materials ◽  
Recycling Process ◽  
Melt Flow Rate ◽  
Plastic Packaging ◽  
Food Packages ◽  
Plastic Materials ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Reuse Options

The weight of packaging materials will be increased with advanced innovations, such as multilayer plastic. The consequence of the advanced innovations is challenges in the following reuse activities. This study aimed to investigate the properties of multilayer plastic materials after recycling processes and will increase the awareness of plastic packaging material for reuse options. In this research, the materials were produced from food packages by crushing them and treating them with injection molding equipment. The implementation of materials in the processing was tested, and the structural and mechanical characteristics of the produced plastic materials was evaluated and discussed. Based on the completed tests, plastic materials used in food packages have the clearest differences in the material features, for instance, the melt flow rate and elongation rate in the tensile test that varied between 2.96–48.4 g/10min and 2–289%, respectively. The variation in the characterizations ranged widely between the material structures. The results indicate that solid plastic packaging materials have better mechanical features compared to foil materials. The structural analysis of materials showed that multilayer plastic includes a wide spectrum of different elements within materials, creating a challenge for future recycling.

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