Sustainable food waste-to-bioenergy supply chain with rate of return under triple bottom line approach

The increasing global concern over food waste management and sustainable energy production has driven the need for an efficient food waste-to-bioenergy supply chain. However, achieving economic viability with environmental sustainability and social benefits remains challenging. The study proposes an optimized food waste to bioenergy supply chain model that integrates a multi-objective optimization framework based on the triple bottom line approach. The model incorporates an incentive-based food waste collection policy, enhancing the rate of return of food waste and reducing dependence on secondary feedstock. The effect of food waste availability on supply chain sustainability is analyzed under several scenarios, and the environmental and social impact of the food waste-to-bioenergy supply chain is assessed using a life cycle assessment approach. The multi-objective mixed integer linear programming problem is optimized using the multi-objective particle swarm optimization technique. Numerical results indicate that implementing an incentive mechanism, with the optimal acquisition cost of $3.4, increases the rate of return on food waste by 96.7 %, significantly maximizing the social impact while minimizing environmental impact and overall supply chain cost. However, procuring secondary feedstock mitigates supply chain risk and maintains bioenergy production but increases total cost, environmental, and social impact by 17.12 %, 3.92 %, and 16.67 %, respectively. The Pareto-based trade-off analysis demonstrates the flexibility of the multi-objective optimization model in balancing objectives. The findings offer strategic insights for policymakers and industries to integrate sustainable food waste management with bioenergy production, offering a comprehensive decision-support framework for enhancing sustainability and efficiency in the food waste-to-energy sector.