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Food waste is an important issue in the global economy. In the EU many activities aimed at this topic are carried out, however in Central Europe is still quite pristine. There is lack of reliable data on food waste quantities in this region, and not many preventive actions are taken. To improve this situation the STREFOWA (Strategies to Reduce and Manage Food Waste in Central Europe) was initiated. It is an international project (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland), founded by the Interreg Central Europe programme, running from July 2016 to June 2019. Its main purpose is to provide solutions to prevent and manage food waste throughout the entire food supply chain. The results of STREFOWA will have positive economical, social and environmental impacts.

This economic analysis contains a case study for a 100 ha apple orchard where a pruning-to-energy (PtE) strategy is employed. Technical aspects of pruned biomass harvesting in apple orchards are outlined, with emphasis on the efficient harvesting of pruning residues using a dedicated baling machine. Economic aspects are approached using economic performance metrics such as the net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR). It is found, for a 10-year project on the 100 ha orchard, that the NPV is €5650, the IRR is 8.71% and the payback time is about 8.0 years. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the economic metrics are highly influenced by the quantity of prunings, orchard area, and the price of pruning residues at the final user. The distance from the orchard to the final user (6 km in the analysed case) and orchard labour costs are both less impactful. The analysis shows that pruned biomass harvesting is technologically feasible in apple orchards, while the obtained values of the economic metrics indicate the economic feasibility of such bioenergy solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the main findings regarding the precision of municipal residual waste sampling and composition analyses attended by six laboratories. The purpose of the performed analyses was to determine factors affecting reproducibility of the procedure, which is supposed to become part of the new Polish waste analysis standard, in comparision to the previous standard. A sample size of 100 kg is proposed as a required sample size in the new norm, while 5 kg samples were used in the previous norm. The sorting samples were derived from a batch of waste delivered by collection vehicles. In case of the100 kg sample, the average coefficient of variation for the 11 main material fractions amounted to 44%, while for the 5 kg sample it was 72%. In case of 100 kg samples, 10 repetitions would provide statistically valid contents of the major material fractions, even if sorting is done be different teams. Sorting into 36 material sub-fractons provided very high variability of results between the labs. The proposed methodology provides a good basis for a waste sampling standard, however due to the high rate of human involvement there is still some room for subjectivity. Among factors affecting the reproducibility of results the most important are: the sorting mechanism (including the shape of slots and the effectiveness of sieving) and interpretation of the individual material categories. A more accurate defition of those could improve the reproducibility of the procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A side product emerging during apple orchard cultivation is pruned biomass, which may be used for energetic purposes. As Poland is the third largest producer of apples in the world, it is crucial to estimate the annual energetic potential of branches from apple tree pruning. In this paper, the theoretical, technical and economic potential of cut branches for energy production with distribution according to provinces (Voivodeships) is determined. Based on literature reviews and our own measurements the amount of produced branches was estimated to be 3.5 Mg-ha-1-year-1. It was shown, that the energetic potential of pruned biomass from apple trees in Poland is in the range of 7.9-12.5 PJ-year-1. Moreover, the abundance of that potential depends on the province and for a single Voivodeship, may vary from 0.04 PJ-year-1 up to 4.8 PJ-year-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]