LCA studies of fruit and vegetables production, storage and transportation using different packagings in consideration of food waste and energy consumption

Packaging significantly affects the loss and waste rate of fresh fruit and vegetables (FV), and thus the environmental impact. The usage of reusable plastic crate (RPC) can reduce food loss and waste (FLW), energy consumption, and thus the relevant environmental impact. However, studies combining FV and all these considerations are limited. This article applies life cycle assessment (LCA), from farm to store shelf, to evaluate the environmental impact of FV and their packaging, including Global Warming Potential (GWP), Freshwater Eutrophication Potential (EP), Freshwater Ecotoxicity Potential (FETP) and Water consumption Potential (WCP). It shows that the RPC usage can significantly reduce environmental impacts. Considering the food loss and waste reduction and energy optimisation brought by RPC usage, RPC usage can reduce GWP increase by 32.36 %–50.38 % as compared to cardboard (CB) packaging, FETP by 3.1 %–16.8 %, EP by 1.9 %–13.4 % and WCP by 3.4 %–16.9 %. The most notable reduction in GWP and FETP is observed for cabbage among the selected FV due to the highest loss rate. When combining food and packaging two life cycles together, the RPC usage can reduce GWP by 4.50 %–16.61 % compared to CB, . Electricity and FLW rate are identified as highly sensitive factors to total environmental impact, while electricity and fertilizer demonstrated a high sensitivity for GWP and FETP, respectively. The study shows that RPC has coupling advantages over CB in terms of indirect and direct impacts on GHG emissions and other environmental impacts. The results support a further deployment of RPC as a means to reduce the environmental influence and waste.