Eco-compensation quantification of sustainable food waste management alternatives based on economic and environmental life cycle cost-benefit assessment

Eco-compensation can promote sustainable food waste management alternatives. However, a comprehensive quantification method is not yet available. This study proposed a method to quantify the eco-compensation for food waste management through environmental and economic life cycle cost-benefit analysis. This method was tested with four food waste management alternatives in Suzhou, China, including Biological Drying + Aerobic Composting (BDAC), Anaerobic Fermentation (AF), Anaerobic Fermentation + Digestate Composting (AFDC), and INcineration (IN). According to the method, the environmental benefits (net positive externalities) and the economic loss (net negative internalities) could provide references to the government and the food waste producers (polluters), respectively, as eco-compensations for food waste disposal plants. The results suggest that AFDC (with higher energy and material recovery level) was the most environmentally and economically viable food waste management alternative. The AFDC exhibited the highest net environmental benefits (CNY t−1) of 844, followed by BDAC (596), IN (449), and AF (356). The net economic profit (CNY t−1) without subsidy of AFDC (55) was the highest, followed by IN (−5), AF (−27), and BDAC (−422). The total values of eco-compensations by the government and the polluters were 564, 101, 0, and 57 CNY t−1 for BDAC, AF, AFDC, and IN, respectively. The proposed methods for food waste disposal management can promote the effective and efficient use of government funds for the sustainable development of the food waste management sector.