Environmental-economic Effects on Agricultural Applications of Food Waste Disposal Products: Evidence from a 2-Year Field Study in Subtropical China

Diverting food waste (FW) from waste to resource is of great importance to the sustainable development of food and agriculture systems. The field applications of FW aerobic compost (FWAC) and digestate residue (FWDR) are poorly reported in China. We performed a 2-year field experiment applying FWAC and FWDR partially substituting chemical N fertilizer (FWAF and FWDF) in subtropical China to investigate their effects on vegetable yield, nitrogen use efficiency, soil organic carbon, and soil N2O/CH4 emissions, and further estimated their environmental-economic effects from a life cycle perspective. With a reduction of 20 % N fertilizer, FWAF and FWDF achieved yearly reduction rates of 55.9 % and 32.9 % on net global warming potentials, 57.2 % and 43.8 % on greenhouse gas intensities, and 59.9 % and 47.8 % on carbon costs without yield loss, compared to conventional chicken manure-added treatment. Recycling FW disposal products as organic fertilizers took synergistic effects on economic benefit improvement and low-carbon agricultural development.