IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i9p2475-d226401.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Use of Bio-Based Plastics in the Fruit Supply Chain: An Integrated Approach to Assess Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Simone Blanc

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy)

  • Stefano Massaglia

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy)

  • Filippo Brun

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy)

  • Cristiana Peano

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy)

  • Angela Mosso

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy)

  • Nicole Roberta Giuggioli

    (Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy)

Abstract

The challenge of developing a sustainable production system includes the reduction of emissions, the efficient use of resources, and the transition to renewable energy. The bioeconomy proposes a development model aimed at reducing impacts and risks associated with the use of non-renewable resources considering the life cycle of products. The European Union is promoting products from renewable sources focused on biochemicals and bio-based plastics, which are high added value products when compared to biofuels. The aim of this paper is to consider sustainability in terms of the environmental, economic, and social aspects of use of bio-based plastics in the fruit chain, considering the case study of raspberry supply chains in northwestern Italy. Different analyses (life-cycle assessment (LCA), life-cycle costing (LCC), and externality assessment (ExA)) were used to assess the impacts along the whole chain by means of an integrated approach. The results show that the bio-based plastic scenario has lower environmental and social impacts than the conventional one, whereas the latter is the best choice according to a classic economic approach. The introduction of bio-based plastics as a replacement for traditional plastics in agri-food chains is the first step toward the use of renewable resources with a low impact on society.

Suggested Citation

  • Simone Blanc & Stefano Massaglia & Filippo Brun & Cristiana Peano & Angela Mosso & Nicole Roberta Giuggioli, 2019. "Use of Bio-Based Plastics in the Fruit Supply Chain: An Integrated Approach to Assess Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:9:p:2475-:d:226401
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2475/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2475/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jiuping Xu & Xianglan Jiang & Zhibin Wu, 2016. "A Sustainable Performance Assessment Framework for Plastic Film Supply Chain Management from a Chinese Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-23, October.
    2. Waldhoff, Stephanie & Anthoff, David & Rose, Steven K. & Tol, Richard S. J., 2014. "The marginal damage costs of different greenhouse gases: An application of FUND," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-33.
    3. Varsei, Mohsen & Polyakovskiy, Sergey, 2017. "Sustainable supply chain network design: A case of the wine industry in Australia," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 66(PB), pages 236-247.
    4. Claudio Baudino & Nicole Roberta Giuggioli & Rossella Briano & Stefano Massaglia & Cristiana Peano, 2017. "Integrated Methodologies (SWOT, TOWS, LCA) for Improving Production Chains and Environmental Sustainability of Kiwifruit and Baby Kiwi in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, September.
    5. Sabrina Neugebauer & Silvia Forin & Matthias Finkbeiner, 2016. "From Life Cycle Costing to Economic Life Cycle Assessment—Introducing an Economic Impact Pathway," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-23, April.
    6. Paola Karina Sanchez RAMIREZ & Luigia PETTI, 2011. "Social Life Cycle Assessment: Methodological And Implementation Issues," The Annals of the "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava. Fascicle of The Faculty of Economics and Public Administration, "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania, Faculty of Economics and Public Administration, vol. 11(1(13)), pages 11-17, June.
    7. Wood, Richard & Lenzen, Manfred & Dey, Christopher & Lundie, Sven, 2006. "A comparative study of some environmental impacts of conventional and organic farming in Australia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 324-348, September.
    8. Pretty, J.N. & Ball, A.S. & Lang, T. & Morison, J.I.L., 2005. "Farm costs and food miles: An assessment of the full cost of the UK weekly food basket," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-19, February.
    9. Richard Jolly & Deepayan Basu Ray, 2007. "Human security-national perspectives and global agendas: insights from national human development reports," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 457-472.
    10. Kunnika Changwichan & Thapat Silalertruksa & Shabbir H. Gheewala, 2018. "Eco-Efficiency Assessment of Bioplastics Production Systems and End-of-Life Options," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-15, March.
    11. Giacomo Falcone & Anna Irene De Luca & Teodora Stillitano & Alfio Strano & Giuseppa Romeo & Giovanni Gulisano, 2016. "Assessment of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Vine-Growing Combining Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and Multicriterial Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-34, August.
    12. Cristiana Peano & Vincenzo Girgenti & Claudio Baudino & Nicole Roberta Giuggioli, 2017. "Blueberry Supply Chain in Italy: Management, Innovation and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, February.
    13. Dietz, Simon, 2012. "The treatment of risk and uncertainty in the US social cost of carbon for regulatory impact analysis," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-12.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rakesh Kumar & Anurag Verma & Arkajyoti Shome & Rama Sinha & Srishti Sinha & Prakash Kumar Jha & Ritesh Kumar & Pawan Kumar & Shubham & Shreyas Das & Prabhakar Sharma & P. V. Vara Prasad, 2021. "Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Ecosystem Services, Sustainable Development Goals, and Need to Focus on Circular Economy and Policy Interventions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-41, September.
    2. Sharfuddin Ahmed Khan & Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik & Simonov Kusi‐Sarpong & Syed Imran Zaman & Syed Hasnain Alam Kazmi, 2021. "Social sustainable supply chains in the food industry: A perspective of an emerging economy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 404-418, January.
    3. Teodora Stillitano & Emanuele Spada & Nathalie Iofrida & Giacomo Falcone & Anna Irene De Luca, 2021. "Sustainable Agri-Food Processes and Circular Economy Pathways in a Life Cycle Perspective: State of the Art of Applicative Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-28, February.
    4. Florinda Martins & Álvaro Torrinha & Cristina Delerue-Matos & Simone Morais, 2022. "Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost of an Innovative Carbon Paper Sensor for 17α-Ethinylestradiol and Comparison with the Classical Chromatographic Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-13, July.
    5. Vítor Domingues Martinho & Paulo Reis Mourão, 2020. "Circular Economy and Economic Development in the European Union: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-25, September.
    6. Nirvana Angela Marting Vidaurre & Ricardo Vargas-Carpintero & Moritz Wagner & Jan Lask & Iris Lewandowski, 2020. "Social Aspects in the Assessment of Biobased Value Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-27, November.
    7. Escobar, Neus & Laibach, Natalie, 2021. "Sustainability check for bio-based technologies: A review of process-based and life cycle approaches," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    8. D'Adamo, Idiano & Falcone, Pasquale Marcello & Imbert, Enrica & Morone, Piergiuseppe, 2020. "A Socio-economic Indicator for EoL Strategies for Bio-based Products," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Newbery, David, 2018. "Policies for decarbonizing a liberalized power sector," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 12, pages 1-24.
    2. Claudio Baudino & Nicole Roberta Giuggioli & Rossella Briano & Stefano Massaglia & Cristiana Peano, 2017. "Integrated Methodologies (SWOT, TOWS, LCA) for Improving Production Chains and Environmental Sustainability of Kiwifruit and Baby Kiwi in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Irene Blanco-Gutiérrez & Consuelo Varela-Ortega & Rhys Manners, 2020. "Evaluating Animal-Based Foods and Plant-Based Alternatives Using Multi-Criteria and SWOT Analyses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-26, October.
    4. van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. & Botzen, W.J.W., 2015. "Monetary valuation of the social cost of CO2 emissions: A critical survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 33-46.
    5. Tuğçe Taşkıner & Bilge Bilgen, 2021. "Optimization Models for Harvest and Production Planning in Agri-Food Supply Chain: A Systematic Review," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-27, August.
    6. Jongeneel, Roel & Polman, Nico & van der Ham, Corinda, 2014. "Costs and benefits associated with the externalities generated by Dutch agriculture," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182705, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Sebastian Spierling & Venkateshwaran Venkatachalam & Marina Mudersbach & Nico Becker & Christoph Herrmann & Hans-Josef Endres, 2020. "End-of-Life Options for Bio-Based Plastics in a Circular Economy—Status Quo and Potential from a Life Cycle Assessment Perspective," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-20, July.
    8. Yannic Rehm & Lucas Chancel, 2022. "Measuring the Carbon Content of Wealth Evidence from France and Germany," PSE Working Papers halshs-03828939, HAL.
    9. Martina Schäfer & Melanie Jaeger-Erben & Aguinaldo Santos, 2011. "Leapfrogging to Sustainable Consumption? An Explorative Survey of Consumption Habits and Orientations in Southern Brazil," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 175-196, March.
    10. Franziska Piontek & Matthias Kalkuhl & Elmar Kriegler & Anselm Schultes & Marian Leimbach & Ottmar Edenhofer & Nico Bauer, 2019. "Economic Growth Effects of Alternative Climate Change Impact Channels in Economic Modeling," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 1357-1385, August.
    11. Annalisa De Boni & Antonia D’Amico & Claudio Acciani & Rocco Roma, 2022. "Crop Diversification and Resilience of Drought-Resistant Species in Semi-Arid Areas: An Economic and Environmental Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-15, August.
    12. Álvaro J. Arnal & Patricia Royo & Gianpiero Pataro & Giovanna Ferrari & Víctor J. Ferreira & Ana M. López-Sabirón & Germán A. Ferreira, 2018. "Implementation of PEF Treatment at Real-Scale Tomatoes Processing Considering LCA Methodology as an Innovation Strategy in the Agri-Food Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, March.
    13. Emmanouil Tziolas & Eleftherios Karapatzak & Ioannis Kalathas & Chris Lytridis & Spyridon Mamalis & Stefanos Koundouras & Theodore Pachidis & Vassilis G. Kaburlasos, 2023. "Comparative Assessment of Environmental/Energy Performance under Conventional Labor and Collaborative Robot Scenarios in Greek Viticulture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-21, February.
    14. Zbigniew Leszczyński & Tomasz Jasiński, 2020. "Comparison of Product Life Cycle Cost Estimating Models Based on Neural Networks and Parametric Techniques—A Case Study for Induction Motors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-14, October.
    15. Koji Tokimatsu & Louis Dupuy & Nick Hanley, 2019. "Using Genuine Savings for Climate Policy Evaluation with an Integrated Assessment Model," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(1), pages 281-307, January.
    16. Witold Chmielarz & Marek Zborowski, 2022. "On the Assessment of e-Banking Websites Supporting Sustainable Development Goals," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20, January.
    17. Saunders, Caroline M. & Barber, Andrew & Sorenson, Lars-Christian, 2009. "Food Miles, Carbon Footprinting and their potential impact on trade," 2009 Conference (53rd), February 11-13, 2009, Cairns, Australia 48051, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    18. Anna-Mara Schön & Marita Böhringer, 2023. "Land Consumption for Current Diets Compared with That for the Planetary Health Diet—How Many People Can Our Land Feed?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-35, May.
    19. Zhang, Hong & Jin, Gui & Zhang, Zhengyu, 2021. "Coupling system of carbon emission and social economy: A review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    20. Stéphane De Cara & Anne Fournier & Carl Gaigné, 2011. "Feeding the cities and greenhouse gas emissions: a new economic geography approach," Working Papers 1109, Chaire Economie du climat.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:9:p:2475-:d:226401. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.