Developing Environmental Performance Indicators for Food and Beverage Processors in the USA

Abstract

Despite consumer and regulatory focus on the quality of final food and beverage (F&B) products, little attention is given to the release and management of toxic chemicals by F&B processors. This study develops five plant-level indicators of environmental performance specific to toxic chemicals. Our findings suggest that (i) only few F&B processors invest in toxic chemical prevention activities; (ii) the major toxic chemical management strategy is treatment rather than recycling or energy recovery; (iii) F&B processors, on average, have improved their toxic chemical management rates between 2001 and 2012; and (iv) there is evidence for homogeneous performance across similar producers in the F&B processing industry but there is no evidence for the role of socio-economic characteristics of surrounding communities on the environmental performance of F&B processors.

Department(s)

Economics

Keywords and Phrases

Cleaner production; EPA; Recycling; Sustainability; Toxic Release Inventory (TRI); Waste management

Geographic Coverage

United States of America

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1470-160X

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Aug 2017

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS