Ramy Salemdeeb

University of Cambridge | Cam · Department of Engineering

Environmental footprinting, underpinned by systematic life-cycle thinking, is increasingly seen as a critical concept for designing policies to fight climate change. The holistic nature of a life-cycle approach, built using the principles of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), enables policy makers to understand the potential impacts and benefits of polic...

If the world is to feed its predicted population of 9 billion in 2050, the issue of food waste must be addressed. Could a two-tier approach, in which developed nations implement waste reduction projects in developing countries, offer the greatest benefits to all?

The environmental evaluation of food waste prevention is considered a challenging task due to the globalised nature of the food supply chain and the limitations of existing evaluation tools. The most significant of these is the rebound effect: the associated environmental burdens of substitutive consumption that arises as a result of economic savin...

The disposal of food waste is a large environmental problem. In the United Kingdom (UK), approximately 15 million tonnes of food are wasted each year, mostly disposed of in landfill, via composting, or anaerobic digestion (AD). European Union (EU) guidelines state that food waste should preferentially be used as animal feed though for most food was...

Resources and waste strategies have recently seen a shift in focus from weight-based recycling targets to impact-driven policies. To support this transition, numerous decision-support tools were developed to help identify waste streams with the highest impacts. However, the majority of these tools focus solely on greenhouse gas emissions and show a...

This article introduces the Scottish Waste Environmental Footprint Tool (SWEFT), a tool that offers insights into the true environmental cost of waste, and explains how it could be used in designing future policies

The food waste reduction potential within the countries of the Middle East and Africa is large and understudied. Countries in the region are faced with food security and sovereignty issues, with over 50% of food imported in some countries. Due to the many differences in this region, this chapter highlights the state of food waste in two prominent c...

Though there are great efforts to reduce and prevent food waste from occurring, some food waste is unavoidable. Due to the continued creation of unavoidable food waste, the proper disposal and treatment of food waste is an absolute priority. This chapter outlines the “lower” downstream recycling, recovery and disposal aspects of the food waste hier...

The Bio-refinery Roadmap for Scotland, published in 2015, aims to increase industrial bio-based economy turnover to £900 million by 2025. A bio-economy can be defined by the use of renewable biological resources to manufacture valuable products. This paper outline an approach developed by Ricardo Energy & Environment and adopted by Scotland in orde...

Purpose Food waste treatment methods have been typically analysed using current energy generation conditions. To correctly evaluate treatment methods, they must be compared under existing and potential decarbonisation scenarios. This paper holistically quantifies the environmental impacts of three food waste downstream management options—incinerati...

While food losses (foods which were intended for human consumption, but which ultimately are not directly eaten by people) have been included in animal feed for millennia, the practice is all but banned in the European Union. Amid recent calls to promote a circular economy, we conducted a survey of pig farmers (n = 82) and other agricultural stakeh...

While food losses (foods which were intended for human consumption, but which ultimately are not directly eaten by people) have been included in animal feed for millennia, the practice is all but banned in the European Union. Amid recent calls to promote a circular economy, we conducted a survey of pig farmers (n=82) and other agricultural stakehol...

Copy of survey used in this study. (DOCX)

Model equations and additional results. (DOCX)

Britons produce up to 25 million tonnes of domestic waste each year, of which one third can be categorised as packaging waste. Although we are well aware of the environmental benefits of recycling, vast quantities of waste are still disposed of in landfills due to consistently low recycling rates in our homes. This could be attributed to the transi...

The environmental evaluation of food waste prevention is considered a challenging task due to the globalised nature of the food supply chain and the limitations of existing evaluation tools. The most significant of these is the rebound effect: the associated environmental burdens of substitutive consumption that arises as a result of economic savin...

In order to achieve a circular economy, there must be a greater understanding of the links between economic activity and waste generation. This study introduces the first version of the UK waste input–output table that could be used to quantify both direct and indirect waste arisings across the supply chain. The proposed waste input–output table fe...

Global forced displacement is expected to break all previous records with 60 million people fled their homes. This massive displacement is characterized by prolonged displacement and reduced reliance on camps, leading to significant disturbance of solid waste management systems (SWM) in host communities, and showing existing international humanitar...

J. Aschemann-Witzel (“Waste not, want not, emit less,” Perspectives, 22 April, p. [408][1]) describes the challenges and benefits of reducing food waste, but does not discuss what to do with the food waste that remains. Because not all food waste is avoidable, it is critically important to pair

This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by Sage. To move towards a circular economy, there must be greater understanding of the linkages between economic activity and waste generation. We suggest the introduction of Waste Input-Output (WIO) table as a way to capture these complex dyna...

Composting is a well-established technology used for food waste treatment. There is ample research into the ecological assessment of composting. Nevertheless, there are two issues that need further investigation: system boundary incompleteness, and the exclusion of capital inputs. This study adopts a hybrid life cycle assessment approach to quantif...

(2011) MSc thesis, Oxford Brookes University

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This study adopts a hybrid life cycle assessment approach to quantifying environmental burdens of composting and anaerobic digestion: well-established technologies used to process food waste in the UK. The paper applies a state-of-the-art hybrid approach to achieving system completeness by including both direct and indirect pro...

Ramy Salemdeeb and Martin Bjerregaard address challenges facing the Gaza Strip dealing with rubble after the recent military offensive in 2014

An Environmental and Techno-Economic Assessment of Household Food Waste Treatment Options in Oxford Ramy Salemdeeb The ISWA World Congress, 7th -11th September 2013 Vienna ABSTRACT Food waste processing is receiving increasing interest due to severely stringent policies banning organic waste to be disposed of to landfills, and the Government’s s...

T he Gaza Strip has been a theatre of conflict for decades. The ongoing conflict has lead to significant political, social, and environmental challenges. According to a recent study by UnoPT (2012), in the absence of sustained and effective remedial actions, coupled with the rapid increase of population, the challenges which confront Gazans will be...