The management of solid waste is currently seen as one of the most important concerns that national authorities, particularly in south Europe, must address. In recent years, emphasis has begun to be paid to Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) being the largest waste stream in the European Union that is produced by renovation and repair work on buildings, roads, bridges, and other constructions made of bulky materials such as asphalt, bricks, wood, and plastic. Many EU countries responded quickly as a result of the large amounts of such waste and the presence of hazardous substances in their composition. This study illustrates the anticipated outcomes of several CDW management strategies other than final disposal, such as recycling, reuse, and incineration, for a public-school building in Greece. In order to assess how well the chosen schemes performed in terms of various environmental criteria, the SimaPro software suite and the Ecoinvent v.3 Life Cycle Inventory database were used. In order to enhance the quality of the outcomes, inventory data from earlier studies were also employed as input data for the Life Cycle Assessment tool.

Food systems and, to an extent, the pig sector are major contributors of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. At the same time, significant amounts of waste are produced from the food sector. The aim of this study is to examine the implementation of circular bio-economy practices in the Greek pig sector to improve its environmental performance. More specifically, in collaboration with a pig farm in Northern Greece and a waste management company, the collection and processing of bakery by-products was organized to produce bakery meal (BM) to integrate it in the diets of fattening and growing pigs. Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, the environmental performance of 20% BM inclusion in pig diets was examined in comparison with the conventional feedstock. BM experimentally replaced corn, wheat, barley, and soya bean from conventional feedstock. The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) was based on the yearly average values of feed and energy consumption to produce 1 kg of living weight of pig on the pig farm. Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) was conducted with SimaPro v3.5, using Recipe Midpoint Hierarchical v1.6. The LCIA calculations exhibited that BM inclusion in pig diets can lead to significant land occupation decrease, approximately 30%, which is mostly related to reduced wheat and soya beans. The reduction of cultivated croplands also led to reduced fertilizer and pesticide application, which improved marine eutrophication and freshwater ecotoxicity impact by 20% while it significantly reduced risks of human carcinogenic toxicity by 25%. Moreover, the Greek pig sector exhibited a 5% capacity for overall improvement of its environmental performance, which relies on minimizing logistics when the pig farm conducted collection and processing of by-products. A basic assumption of this study is the assessment of bakery by-product quantities in the wider region of the pig farm. The availability of by-products, based on the reported experience, was limited, and the reliability of the supply was frequently disrupted. As such, the supply chain model of the central hub for the collection and processing of bakery by-products is proposed as more efficient for regulating logistic challenges and availability.

This study aims to demonstrate an integrated methodology for the valorisation of bakery former food products (FFP) as an ingredient of pig feed diets. The methodology involves: conducting a needs analysis and a full path traceability scheme based on Global Standards 1 (GS1) Organisation (Brussels, Belgium) standards, designing digital tools to support the implementation of the traceability scheme, and assessing the valorisation of FFP and, more specifically, of bakery by-products in bakery meal (BM) production, and its implementation in pig feed diet. BM production comprises various bakery by-products, which were collected, unpacked, grinded, and thermally treated. Physicochemical and microbiological analyses were conducted on BM samples, mainly focusing on nutrient composition, and the presence of aflatoxins, mycotoxins, and pathogenic microorganisms. The BM was then fed to finishing pigs (at an inclusion rate of 20% w/w), in parallel to a control group fed with a conventional pig feed diet. The animals in both dietary groups were evaluated for growth performance, and meat samples were analysed for specific quality parameters and sensory characteristics. The results show that the addition of 20% w/w BM does not significantly affect the growth performance or the meat quality of the pigs. Moreover, a sensory evaluation revealed minor differences in the sensory characteristics of the meat samples, denoting that the BM addition does not seem to dwindle the final meat product.

Food systems account for one third of greenhouse gas emissions while fish production is assigned 4% of total anthropogenic emissions as well as other environmental implications. The Greek fishery industry is a very promising and upcoming sector with renowned products such as “Avgotaracho Mesolongiou”, the Greek bottarga, which is a product of designated origin (PDO) with cultural and economic significance but unexplored environmental impacts. The aim of the study is to depict the environmental hot-spots of “Avgotaracho Mesolongiou” production using the life cycle analysis (LCA) methodology with the help of SimaPro v3.5 software and the Ecoinvent database v3.9. “Avgotaracho Mesolongiou” supply chain is divided into the fish extraction, roe processing and transport, and retail stages, while the inventory of each stage is filled with data depicted from producers via a questionnaire and findings from the literature. The hot-spot analysis of Avgotaracho Mesolongiou exhibited high human carcinogenic toxicity, and marine and freshwater ecotoxicity impacts that account for more than 90% of total normalized scores. More specifically, the use of metallic traps in the fish-catching facilities presented the highest contribution among the inputs and was responsible for more than 70% of total normalized scores. Furthermore, the uncontrolled treatment processes of waste streams are attributed 6% of total normalized scores. More specifically, waste wood open-burning accounts for 10% of human carcinogenic toxicity while disposal of wastewater was responsible for 25% of freshwater eutrophication. Moreover, a scenario-driven LCA was conducted to compare the existing waste treatment meth+ods to a proposed improved waste management (IWM) scenario. The implementation of controlled treatment processes resulted in a decrease in human carcinogenic toxicity and freshwater eutrophication impact by 8% and 26%, respectively. The outcome was proven to be robust in respect to the affected impact categories while the fish extraction remains the most impactful stage of the supply chain when subjected to a sensitivity analysis.

Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) processes for the production of standardized polyphenol-rich powders were evaluated as a valorization route for second- and third-grade apples, figs, and pomegranates from Central Macedonia, Greece. Based on experimental results, the scaled-up process was modeled using SuperPro Designer to evaluate a continuous facility treating 7920 tonnes·yr⁻¹ of feedstock. Material and energy balances revealed high utility demands, which were heavily mitigated through optimized closed-loop steam and cooling water regeneration systems. The techno-economic analysis showed that, driven by its high extraction yield (14.63 kg Gallic acid equivalent [GAE]·t⁻¹), the optimized pomegranate extraction was the only profitable scenario, yielding an annual operating cost of EUR 6.35 M/yr and a Net Present value (NPV) of EUR 11.81 M at a EUR 80/kg selling price; low-yield apple and fig lines remained highly unviable. Capacity sensitivity analysis showed that high fixed capital costs limit smaller plants, while market price sweeps identified a break-even point at EUR 66.03/kg. Using 1 kg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) as the functional unit, the life cycle assessment confirmed that pomegranate processing achieved the best environmental performance, primarily governed by reduced feedstock and utility requirements per unit of active extract. Toxicity-related categories constituted the main hotspots across all configurations, with the fig line acting as the worst absolute environmental performer. However, because the regional residue availability of 8483 tonnes·yr⁻¹ is dominated by apples, a standalone pomegranate processing plant is constrained at this scale, indicating that future work must focus on flexible multi-feedstock campaign processing or inter-regional feedstock aggregation.