The Ambiguity of Packaging Cucumbers

FIG. 1 VEGETABLES IN A SUPERMARKET (OWN ARCHIVE, 2017)

Bachelor thesis

The Ambiguity of Packaging Cucumbers

A literature study on the social costs of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the cultivation, harvesting and packaging of cucumbers

Published by: Flip van de Westeringh Student number: 10735127 Bachelor: Future planet Studies Major: Business Administration

University of Amsterdam On: 27-06-2017 Supervised by: Dhr. W.H. Dorresteijn Faculty of Business and Economics Section: Entrepreneurship and Innovation

S

This document is written by Filip Cees Willem van de Westeringh born on 27-12-1994 in Amsterdam, who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.

I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used creating it.

The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.

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2.1.3 Global Warming Potential (GWP) & CO2-equivalents 11

2.1.4 Social costs of carbon (SCC) 12

2.1.5 Visualisation of the conceptual framework 14

3.0 Methods 15

4.0 Literature study 17

4.1 Analysis of GHG emissions due to cucumber harvesting and cultivation 17

4.2 Analysis of GHG emissions due to plastic production 20

4.3 Analysis of GHG emissions due to cucumber food waste 22

4.4 Social costs of cucumber harvesting, LDPE/HDPE production and cucumber food waste 26

5.0 Results 27

5.1 Results sub question 1 27

5.2 Results sub question 2 27

5.3 Results sub queston 3 28

5.4 Results sub question 4 29

6.0 Discussion 29

6.1 Recommendations for further research 30

7.0 Conclusion 31 8.0 References 32 9.0 Appendices 40 Appendix 1 40 Appendix 2 40 Appendix 3 42 Appendix 4 42 Appendix 5 45 Appendix 6 46

A

In nowadays society more and more people need to be nurtured and thus, at least in more developed countries, more and more packaging material is needed to package this food. The production of this packaging leads to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). However, the alternative, namely not to package foods brings an increased probability of food waste with it. This thesis therefore assesses the difference of social costs of the emitted greenhouse gases of either wrapping or not wrapping cucumbers in a HDPE/LDPE shrink wrap on the basis of the literature study and two substituting interviews and an email correspondence with specialists in the field of fruits and vegetables. From this research appeared that a substantial amount of GHG’s are emitted during the cultivation and harvesting of cucumbers. The amount of GHG’s emitted is equal to more than 38 thousand tons1

of CO2-eq. which consequently implies the social costs of carbon emitted to be almost 12 million USD2

for the Netherlands. Due to wrapping cucumbers in plastic approximately 19440 tons of cucumbers can be prevented from being wasted per year. In order to prevent this an LDPE/HDPE shrink wrap is needed to be produced for this amount of cucumbers. This wrapping has a related CO2-eq emission of almost 220 ton CO2-eq., and social costs of carbon of almost 7.000 USD

3

. If packaging would not have been applied, more than 18.000 tons of CO2-eq. would have been emitted since cucumbers were harvested and cultivated but spilled afterwards. This amount of emissions is equal to social costs of carbon of more than half a million USD4 _{for the Netherlands alone. This implies that} there is a difference in social costs of carbon of almost 600.000 USD between either packaging or not packaging the cucumbers. From thereon it can be concluded that it in view of both social costs of carbon and the environment, it is wise to make use of plastic packaging in order to prevent cucumber food waste.

1 _{405000000 x 0.9415 kg CO}

2-eq per kg cucumber = 381307500 kg CO2-eq. = 381308 ton 2 _{381307500 kg CO}

2-eq. (due to cultivation)X 0.031 USD/kg CO2-eq (SCC). = 11.820.532,5 USD 3 _{219186 kg CO}

2-eq (due to plastic production) x 0.031 USD/kg CO2-eq. (SCC) = 6.794,77 USD 4 _{18302760 kg CO}

1.0

I

Since we all live in a world where energy and resources are superfluously provided by the sun and earth and these are being used in great extent, climate issues are becoming increasingly important. The world’s population has grown to 7.3 billion people by mid 2015 and will continue to grow to 8.5 billion people by 2030 (UN, 2015). With these numbers in mind, more people have to be fed and more food will be wrapped in plastics in order to maintain freshness. Moreover, food wastage is still an important factor in nowadays society as economic, social and environmental costs of food wastage amount to about 2.6 trillion USD pro year, which is approximately twice the total food expenditure in the US (FAO, 2014). Since crop harvesting is an intensive practice, in both yield and energy consumption, this means that if crops and specifically crops from horticultural farming are wasted, the energy invested in these crops will also be wasted (Khoshnevisan, 2013).

In order to prevent that the energy invested is wasted due to loss of freshness, cucumbers are wrapped in a plastic wrapping made of low-density polypropylene (LDPE) or high-density polypropylene (HDPE) (Wang, 1997). Packaging thereby is an important factor that contributes to environmental product impact as it makes up almost 65% of solid the customer waste produced and the use and disposal of packaging comprises almost 60% of the total production cost (Battini et al., 2016). As both plastic pollution and food waste are important subjects in nowadays discussion of sustainability, the central question of this thesis will therefore be: what is the difference in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of wrapping or not wrapping a cucumber in LDPE and what are the resulting social costs of this (un)wrapping? The goal of the research is thus to find out what the social costs are of either wrapping or not wrapping cucumbers in plastic and thereby finding out what better is for the environment. The sub questions hereby are: what amount of GHG emissions come from cucumber harvesting and what are main drivers behind these emissions? What amount of GHG emissions come from the production of LDPE and HDPE and what are the main drivers of these emissions? The third sub question of this thesis is: what amount of cucumbers is wasted and what causes the spillage of these cucumbers? The fourth sub question hereby is: what are the social costs of cucumber harvesting, LDPE/HDPE production and cucumber food losses due to wrapping or not wrapping the cucumbers?

This thesis will therefore be built up as follows: firstly, in chapter 2, existing literature will be reviewed in order to come to the relevant concepts and definitions and show academic

and social relevance. These concepts and definitions will further be demarcated and defined in the conceptual framework which will also be visualized at the end of chapter 2.

Afterwards is explained which methods and ways of research have been applied in order to operationalize this research. Subsequently, the literature study is done in which the literature and interviews related to this research subject are discussed and examined. Through analysing this literature, the sub questions will be answered in chapter 5. With these results an overall conclusion considering the research question can be given. Moreover, in the discussion section, the made assumptions and possible gaps in current research are discussed. In the recommendations for further research is shown which subjects can be investigated further and in which ways improvement on this subject can be achieved.

2.0

L

In this chapter already existing literature on the most important subjects considering this research will be discussed on the basis of a descriptive framework. Existing literature will therefore be used as a foundation for this research. Furthermore, the most important concepts and variables are discussed and explained in order to make sure that the research and its defining concepts are clearly demarcated. Hereby academic relevance and social relevance is explained on the basis of previous research and readily available knowledge.

A substantial amount of research has been done on the influence of agricultural crops on GHG emissions (Kramer, 1999; Robertson, 2000). From these researches it becomes clear that crop production and harvesting have a substantial influence on the amount of GHG’s emitted, which are mostly nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide (CO2) mostly exists through bacterial degradation or burning of organic particles (Janzen, 2004). Methane (CH4) arises mostly as organic materials degrade in low-oxygen conditions as happens in stored manure (Mosier, 1998). Nitrous oxide (N2O) is mostly generated by microbial generation in soils where the amount of nitrogen exceeds the amount of nitrogen needed (Oenema et al., 2005).

Khoshnevisan (2013) and Pishgar-Komleh (2013) both undertook researches especially focussed on greenhouse gas emissions of cucumber harvesting in Iran and the possible implications to reduce the emissions of agricultural GHG emissions, since no data was available on the amount of emissions coming from the harvesting of cucumbers. Thereby comes the fact that non-renewable energy has a big share in Iran’s agriculture, which is also the case in the Netherlands as appears from a report of Deloitte (2015), which states that in 2012 natural gas accounted for 70% in the Dutch generation capacity mix.

Other research on plastic polymer production and its fossil fuel usage exists by for example PlasticsEurope (2008) and Franklin associates (2011). Both of these reports focus on the environmental assessment of LDPE and HDPE, the corresponding energy use and its environmental impact. Franklin Associates did this research in commission of the American Chemistry Council. PlasticsEurope is one of the leading trade associations of plastics in Europe. More than 100 member companies are associated with PlasticsEurope, which account for 90% of all polymers produced across the EU28 Member states and Norway. Also Narita (2002) executed a comparative study on commodity plastic production in Japan with special focus on energy use during the different production steps. From this research appeared that different

commodity plastics have different CO2 emissions since each plastic has different energy configurations in the different production process.

Moreover, Wang (1997) has done research on the necessity and purpose of shrink-wrapping cucumbers in order to maintain freshness. From this research appeared that non-wrapped cucumbers lose about 9% of their weight, while LDPE packed cucumbers only lost 0.9% of their weight after 18 days of storage at 5 °C. Dhall (2012) has also done research on the effect of shrink wrapping cucumbers in order to maintain freshness. From this research appeared that the most deteriorative effects of cucumbers during storage and distribution are yellowing and loss of water content which in turn leads to shrinking and thus less firmness, loss of colour and smaller size which in turn affects market prices and saleability. Sudhakar Rao et al., (2000) found out that shrink wrapping of cucumbers can increase shelf-life of cucumbers with about 24 days when they are stored at 10 °C. This research reconfirmed that weight-loss was sufficiently less when cucumbers were shrink wrapped.

The researches of Wang (1997), Dhall (2012) and Sudhakar Rao (2000) can be related to the research by Cox & Dowing (2007) about the main reasons for household food waste. This food waste is about 15-30% of all purchased food in the US and Europe (Williams, 2012) with a monetary loss of 2.6 trillion USD (FAO, 2014). 45% of fruits and vegetables is spilled, of which more than 20% happens in agriculture, due to for example poor harvesting, and 15% happens during distribution (FAO, 2012) (Fig. 2). If this spilling were to be prevented, 456 million tons of GHG’s could be saved by 2050 in the UK only (Papargyropoulou, 2014). Hereby comes the fact that the growth of food in greenhouses dominates climate change impact as fossil fuels are often applied to heat greenhouses (Gustavsson, 2010). Also, Barlow (2013) adds that minimization of the materials used for packaging whilst retaining the mechanical and barrier properties is the best way to achieve a decrease in environmental impact. Moreover, literature is available by Denkstatt (2015) about the reduction of cucumber food waste due to wrapping cucumbers.

The overall environmental impact expressed in CO2-equivalents can be brought back to social costs of carbon according to Nordhaus (2013).

FIG 2 FRUITS AND VEGETABLE WASTE (FAO, 2012)

Also Fankhauser (1994) did research on the estimations of monetary costs of a ton of carbon dioxide emissions or an equivalent of carbon dioxide. This concept of social costs of carbon is further explained in the conceptual framework. According to Tol (2005) it can easily be said that for practical purposes the monetary costs of a ton of carbon will not exceed 50$, and that in most cases it will be substantially lower than this amount.

Academic relevance is achieved as sufficient research has been done about the relevant separate subjects included in this thesis. However, no existing literature can be found about the differences in emissions of (not) shrink wrapping vegetables and cucumbers specifically and the resulting social costs of the carbon emissions. This is substantiated with the fact that from personal communication with J. van Assen (Milieudefensie) (personal communication, 17-5-17) appeared that no sufficient literature and research is available about specific sector-wise horticultural emissions and its environmental impacts. From this communication appeared that the CBS (Centraal Bureau Statistiek) is asked to do further specific research on specific sector-wise horticultural emissions.

As the wrapping of cucumbers is closely intertwined with emissions, food waste, energy needs, greenhouse gasses and resulting social costs, research on these subjects will be done in order to come to an answer on the research question. Social relevance is achieved by the fact that greenhouse gasses and food waste have big implications for nowadays society and may have substantial influence on the future and related climate change. The most important interconnected concepts regarding this research will therefore be discussed in the following section. These concepts will be used as a basis to analyse the collected information and data in order to come to a reliable and concise conclusion.

2.1

C

As for this research concepts and definitions need to be refined in order to come to a concise answer to the research question, this will be done in the following framework. The most important concepts within this research are: food waste, greenhouse gasses, global warming potential and carbon equivalents and the social costs of carbon as will be explained subsequently. The next step is the visualization of the conceptual framework (fig. 3), in which the interconnecting systems and models are shown that are relevant for this research. For this research, the systems taken into account are: the emissions arising from cucumber cultivation and emissions arising from the production of plastic wrapping versus the possible food waste

of (not) wrapping the cucumbers. Distribution and transportation will not be taken into consideration due to the fact that 0.1% of Dutch cucumber production is exported, which has a monetary value of 0.5 billion USD (OECD, 2015). As this is global export, it remains unclear how much emissions are connected with the distribution and transportation. The assumption is therefore made that for both wrapped and non-wrapped cucumbers the ways of transportation and distribution are such complex systems that it is too much and complex to take into account for the scope of this research.

2.1.1

F

W

Papargyropoulou (2014) states that there are three main definitions of food waste. Firstly, the FAO (1981) states that food waste is seen as wholesome edible material produced for human consumption, which is lost, degraded or consumed by diseases in the food supply chain. In addition, Stuart (2009) says that food waste also includes food that has the purpose of being fed to animals or by-products of food processing that have diverted away from the human food chain. Furthermore, according to Smil (2004), the concept should also include over-nutrition, which is the difference of the energy needed per capita per day and the actual amount of energy consumed per capita. This surplus is often present in the Western culture as over-consumption happens regularly, which may in turn lead to obesity.

For this research the definition of the FAO (1981) will be adopted as this is the most applicable one for this case, because this research only focusses on cucumbers for human consumption. Food produced for animals as Stuart (2009) defined and over-nutrition as Smil (2004) defined are thus not taken into account. Food losses refer to a decrease in edible food mass in the food supply chain, mostly during production, post-harvest and processing stages (Gustavsson, 2011). Food waste generally relates somewhat closer to behavioural aspects of spillage (Parfit, 2010). However, both terms will be used alternately, but no behavioural aspects are included in this research as this is another ground of research.

2.1.2

G

G

(GHG’

)

Greenhouse gasses are gaseous components of the atmosphere that absorb solar energy from the earth’s atmosphere. These gasses do not cause any problems in natural conditions and concentrations but may give complications when present in higher concentrations. The absorbed energy is transferred back to nitrogen and oxygen from earth’s surface, which leads to an overall temperature increase in the lower atmosphere as these gasses absorb the reflected energy (De Klein, 2008). These GHG’s are of great importance for regulation of the earth’s natural surface temperature as without the natural greenhouse effect the earth’s mean temperature would approximately be 33 °C lower than it is in current days. It thus creates a climate in which human beings and organisms can live (Change, 1998). However, some GHG’s have been emitted exponentially with an increase of 70% between 1970 and 2004. This increase mainly happened through an increase of industrialization and agricultural activities. As a result of this, earth’s temperature rose with 0,6 °C (Steinfeld et al., 2006), which is called the enhanced greenhouse effect. According to numerical models the enhanced greenhouse effect may lead to a drier land surface on mid-latitudes in mid-summer (Mitchell, 1989).

The greenhouse gasses taken into account for this study are the ones of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). This is since these are the main anthropogenic

gasses and CH4 and N2O emissions from agricultural activities contribute for over 90% of

emissions of agricultural emissions (De Klein, 2008). CH4 and N2O thereby absorb more

infrared light and thus have a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP) (Lashof, 1990). N2O

gas should in these matters not be confused with NO2 gas, which is also harmful for the

environment but not considered as a greenhouse gas.

2.1.3

G

W

P

(GWP)

&

CO

-

The concept of GWP has been used within the Kyoto protocol as a unity to assess the climatic impact of different GHG’s (Shine, 2008). It is an attempt to create a simple measure of the radiative effects of several GHG’s. According to Houghton (1996) the GWP can be defined as an index of the cumulative radiative forcing between the present and some chosen time by a unit mass of gas emitted now, relative to a reference gas (CO2 in this case). The

warming commitment of a GHG can be derived by multiplying the amount of GHG emitted with the appropriate GWP, which then yields to a CO2-equivalent (Houghton, 1996). Radiative

forcing is therein dependent on the concentration of the gas emitted and the strength of absorbing and re-emitting long-wave radiation. As appears from paragraph 2.1.2 the most important GHG’s are CO2, CH4 and N2O. These gasses have a 100-year GWP of 1, 21 and 310

respectively (Houghton, 1996). It is thus a measure of how much energy a unit of gas will absorb over a given time period relative to a ton of carbon dioxide (EPA, 2017). A ton or a kilogram of CH4 will thus absorb 21 times more energy in 100 years than a ton of CO2. Or in

other words, a ton of CH4 will absorb as much energy as 21 tons of CO2 will do in 100 years.

The overall concept thus means that all GHG emissions can be calculated back to a CO2

-equivalent, with respect to their radiative forcing (IPCC, 2001). The higher the potential, the more energy the gas absorbs over a certain time period and thus the more influence it has on the enhanced greenhouse effect. The application of the GWP can therefore be traced back to a single measure and eventually be useful to assess the social costs of carbon (SCC). Since GHG’s have a GWP and can be calculated back to CO2-equivalents, the concept of CO2

-equivalents will therefore be applied in this research as it is a globally accepted and adopted term of speaking about emissions and its equivalents.

2.1.4

S

(SCC)

The social costs of carbon (SCC) is also an important concept within this research as this term stands for the economic cost that arises from another ton of CO2 or its equivalent

(methane and nitrous oxide in this case)added to the atmosphere. There are two main ways of assessing the SCC, namely through a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and through a marginal costs (MC) analysis. In the CBA analysis, SCC are expressed in terms of carbon taxes necessary to reach an optimum level of CO2-emissons. In the MC the SCC are seen as the marginal damage

for society by emission of a ton of CO2-equivalents. For this study the MC approach will be

taken into account as it is a widely accepted method of assessment and substantial amounts of widely cited studies apply this way of assessment. The concept of SCC itself has some differing definitions which will be outlined here.

As from Nordhaus (2013) appears: “In a more precise definition, SCC is the change in the discounted value of the utility of consumption per unit of additional emissions, denominated in terms of current consumption.” With an optimized climate policy, which is often not realistic, the social costs of carbon will be equal to the carbon price, which is equal to the marginal cost of emission reduction and the present value of the harms caused by a unit of emission

(Nordhaus, 2013). However, since it is not realistic that there is an optimized climate policy, the SCC can be seen as the marginal damage of emissions along the actual path. According to Nordhaus (2013), as emissions increase with one unit over a time period, consumption decreases in this time period. According to Pearce (1996), estimated costs are about 1,5 times world GNP for a doubling of CO2 concentrations. However, these estimates are different for developing countries and based on assumptions. According to Tol (2005) expressing impact in monetary terms alone is not enough to compare costs. For a comparison, the effect that can be achieved by small alterations in GHG emissions should also be assessed. Fankhauser (1994) thereby adds that benefits from avoidance of greenhouse gasses and warming can only be feasible if damage can be expressed in monetary terms as is the aim of this research. In a more understandable way the social costs of carbon are: “The SCC represents the present value of the marginal social damages of increased GHG emissions in a particular year—including the impacts of global warming on agricultural productivity and human health, loss of property and infrastructure due to sea level rise and extreme weather events, diminished biodiversity and ecosystem services, etc.—and therefore it also represents the marginal social benefits of emission reductions.” (Newbold, 2010). Or as Kapp (1963; as cited in Tseng (2014)) defines the social costs of carbon: “All direct and indirect losses sustained by third persons or the general public as a result of unrestrained economic activities. These social losses may take the form of damages to human health, the destruction of property values, and the premature depletion of ecosystems”. As appears, several definitions exist for SCC. For this study, the definitions as explained by Fankhauser (1994) and Kapp (1963) are adopted as these are the most understandable definitions and certain elements, such as destruction of property and premature loss of ecosystems, can be visualized in nowadays society.

According to Tol (2005) one can safely argue that for practical purposes, although climate change impacts are uncertain, marginal costs of the damage of a ton of CO2 emitted will not exceed 50 USD. However, Tol (2005) adds that these costs might be substantially smaller than that. Multiple estimates exist on the marginal social costs of carbon as previously described. Tseng (2015) peer-reviewed several studies and found thereby several divergent figures. Hope (2011) found SCC of 100 USD per ton of carbon emitted, while Etchart (2012) also peer-reviewed several studies and came to an amount of 5 to 100 USD per ton of carbon emissions. There thus exists a lot of different figures on the actual SCC. These amounts differ substantially as there is vast uncertainty about future climate change (Tseng, 2014).

From a more recent study by Tol (2011) SCC of a ton of carbon(equivalents) was estimated at 31 USD. The SCC is thus the monetary value of the damage that is caused by the emission of a ton of carbon(equivalents). For this study the assumption of SCC of 31 USD per ton of carbon-equivalents as Tol (2011) reviewed, is applied as this study has widely been cited and Tol (2011) applies the marginal cost model.

2.1.5

V

systems are:

cucumber cultivation

and harvesting and plastic shrink

wrapping production. Within these systems there are different aspects influencing the GHG emissions and its resulting social costs. For example, energy-intensive inputs as fossil fuels and natural gas are needed in order to heat the greenhouses. Within this model the assumption is that there is one independent variable, namely the one of (not) shrink wrapping the cucumber. However, a critical note hereby is that this either wrapping or not wrapping might be influenced by the amount of cucumbers spilled. If this spilling becomes too high, it creates a defensible argument to wrap the products. If, on the other hand, for example social costs of not wrapping the cucumber and thus having more spillage are substantially lower than wrapping and having more emissions from plastic production, one could choose to not pack the products. The variable of packaging will eventually influence the outcome variables of GHG emissions, which in turn influences the social costs caused by emission of carbon-equivalents as described by Tol

FIG. 3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK(VISUALIZED): HOW SOCIAL COSTS OF CARBON ARISE

(2005), as can be seen in fig 3. All inputs and outputs chosen for this model stem from already existing literature by Kramer (1999), Pishgar-Komleh (2013), Khoshnevisan (2013), PlasticsEurope (2008), Franklin Associates (2011), Deloitte (2015) and OECD (2015).

For this research the concepts of food waste, greenhouse gas emissions, the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and social costs of GHG’s are the most important ones to take into consideration while coming to an overall grounded and well substantiated conclusion.

3.0

M

As explained before, the research question of this thesis is: what is the difference in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of wrapping or not wrapping a cucumber in LDPE and what are the resulting social costs of this (un)wrapping? As this research and its sub questions must be operationalized, this operationalization will be explained in this section.

In order to firstly find relevant information to explore the subject of this thesis, general information about greenhouse gas emissions of horticultural crop cultivation, plastic production and food waste was gathered. With this information the preliminary sub questions were developed, which laid the foundation for further information gathering. From thereon a literature review was done in order to come to general information and the most important concepts considering this research. From this review appeared that social costs of carbon, greenhouse gas emissions, the GWP and CO2-equivalents and food waste are important concepts for this research. In the conceptual framework these concepts are further explained and demarcated in order to come to a well substantiated conceptual ground and definitions.

For this literature research and conceptual framework, the main way of information gathering is through reviewing existing literature. Also, little information is gathered through own experiments since specific literature is not to be found in existing databases. The largest share of literature, however, is gathered through online research on primary and secondary articles. All articles included were those of either exploratory, peer-reviews, scientific books and reporting nature by governmental organizations and institutes. Searches were conducted through using both Google Scholar and Web of Knowledge. Next to making use of these sources of academic information, governmental websites and reports were also utilized in order to come to hard data about the subject of this thesis. Examples are websites of Centraal Bureau Statistiek (CBS), the FAO and the American Council on Chemistry.

Moreover, a semi-structured interview was conducted with A. Bons (personal communication, 16-6-17) in order to come to more insights of the reasons of packaging vegetables in supermarket (see appendix 2). A. Bons is the fruit and vegetable manager of the Landmarkt, which is a sustainable supermarket in Amsterdam. Some questions considering this research were also sent to G. Heineke (see appendix 5), the commercial and operations manager of the fresh department of the Marqt, which is a “green” supermarket in Amsterdam and some other Dutch cities. The ideology of Marqt is to do what is good for human, animals and nature. Therefore, it could be that a product is organic, but it is not a goal on itself. Another semi-structured interview was conducted with B. Italie (personal communication, 21-6-17) (see appendix 4), who is a commercial assistant at ZANN Organics, which is a company that imports and distributes organic fruits and vegetables in the Netherlands. ZANN organics is also a supplier of the Landmarkt. Both of the semi-structured interviews and the email correspondence were merely aimed on the fact why companies do or do not apply wrapping of their fruits and vegetables. Both of the interviews and the email correspondence were done in order to come to more specific insights on what sector specialists think of the subject of this thesis. As there are two interviews and one email correspondence this is too little qualitative data to apply coding, there is just made use of thematic analysis. From the interviews some general themes appeared, namely the ones of import/transport/handling, reasons of packaging, product quality and rules and regulations (see appendix 6 for thematic analysis of the interviews).

With the gathered data and information certain calculations are executed in order to answer the sub questions. This will eventually lead to a concise answer on the main question. The gathered data and information come from different resources in order to make the basis of the data more trustworthy and as independent as possible. As multiple data and information exists on different facts and figures, estimates and averages are taken in order to increase reliability of the applied information and data.

As most of the consulted literature apply the same measurement units, the same units will be applied in this research too. This is in order to keep details and certain calculations in the same order with which further calculations can be made and to prevent errors in personal calculations. The standard units applied in this research are therefore kilograms as a measure of weight of cucumbers. Tons or kg’s of CO2-equivalents will therefore be the unit applied to describe emissions. Furthermore, social costs of these emissions will be given in a USD per kg CO2-equivalent.

4.0

L

In the literature study an assessment of existing literature considering previous explained sub questions, concepts, definitions and academic relevance of this study is done. The four sub questions as explained in the introduction will be discussed in consequent order, after which the sub questions will be answered in section 5.

4.1

A

GHG

CULTIVATION

In this subsection an assessment is done of the amount of GHG CO2-equivalents emitted through the horticultural crop cultivation and harvesting of cucumbers. This is done in order to come to a concise answer on the sub question of how much GHG’s are emitted in this process and what the main drivers are of these emissions. The answer on this question will then be given in section 5.1

Vegetables account for almost 60% of greenhouse crop production. Because of this big share, vegetables account for the relative big share of the 15% of global GHG emissions that arise from agriculture of which methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are the most important greenhouse gasses (Robertson, 2000). A recent study by Khoshnevisan (2013) shows that for greenhouse cucumber harvesting, nitrous oxide emission originates from application of nitrogen fertilizers and the denitrification process by micro-organisms. The combustion of diesel fuel for agricultural machinery thereby also plays a role in nitrous oxide emissions. Carbon dioxide arises from the use of agricultural machinery, electricity and natural gas. The use of natural gas and electricity is high since high temperatures are essential for cucumbers to grow sufficiently (Pishgar-Komleh, 2013). Methane mostly originates from the use of diesel, which is approximately 5.4 gr/kg diesel used (Kramer, 1999). From Khoshnevisan (2013) appeared that the approximate carbon dioxide emission per hectare of cucumber harvesting was 47133 kg with an average cucumber yield of 189808 kg or 189.8085

ton ha-1

.

In the Netherlands the three most important vegetables harvested in greenhouses are bell-peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. In the year of 2015 approximately 405 thousand tons of cucumbers were harvested (CBS, 2017). These cucumbers were harvested on approximately 545 ha of ground under glass (CBS statline, 2017). This thus comes down to an approximate

yield of 743,126

ton ha-1

of cucumber in the Netherlands in the year of 2015. As these figures are based on CBS statistics, the assumption is made that these figures are true to reality and can therefore be used for this research.

For the Netherlands, the overall yield per hectare is thus approximately 3.92 times7

higher than the figures from Khosnevisan (2013). Overall, machinery, fossil fuels (natural gas & diesel) for machinery and heating, fertilizers, pesticides and electricity are the most important sources of energy input as can be seen in the visualization of the conceptual framework in fig. 3. The output of the cultivation and harvesting process are the cucumbers (Khoshnevisan, 2013). As the most important GHG from agriculture are the ones of CO2, CH4 and N2O, an

assessment of what amount of these gasses are emitted in terms of total emissions and their CO2

equivalent is done.

In total, the amount of CO2-eq emitted from greenhouse farming in the Netherlands

decreased from 7,0 to 5,7 M ton in 2014 (Moerkerken, 2016). These amounts are based on the amount of natural gas used by the sector, as this is an important cause of GHG emissions. These emissions took place on a total greenhouse area of 9206 ha of which 545 ha is cucumber greenhouse production. (Van der Velden, 2016). Hereby the assumption is made that emissions per hectare of greenhouse produced product are equally divided as no literature is to be found about specific horticultural emissions of cucumbers in the Netherlands. From calculations appears that the average amount of CO2-eq emitted per hectare is 619161,42 kg

8 . These CO2-eq 6 _{405000 tons / 545 ha = 743.12 ton ha}-1 7 _{743.12 / 189.808 = 3.92} 8 _{5700000000 kg CO} 2-eq / 9206 ha = 619161,4164 kg CO2-eq ha-1

emissions thus only arise from natural gas heating which is according to Khosnevishan (2013), Deloitte (2015) and OECD (2015) also the biggest energy user and emission related source in horticulture. This CO2-eq comes down to the fact of approximately 0.83 kg

9

CO2-eq kg -1

cucumber. From research by Davis (2011) appeared that approximately 1.05 kg CO2-eq per kg cucumber

was emitted (fig. 4). The most significant emissions hereby arise from heating greenhouses as also occurs in the Netherlands. The mean of the figures from Davis (2011) and own executed calculations is 0.9415 kg CO2-eq per kg of cucumber produced. This number is in contrast with

calculations by Wallén et al (2004), who calculated a 3.30 kg CO2-eq emission per kg cucumber.

Wallén et al. (2004) include in their calculations the energy use and emissions of GHG’s for food processing and distribution that is needed for food consumption per capita in Sweden in one year. However, since the calculations by Wallén (2004) also include distribution and processing and the own calculated mean does not include this, the decision is made to continue using the average number of of 0.9415 kg CO2-eq kg

-1 _cucumber.

According to Davis (2011) the emissions of methane and nitrous oxide can be ascribed to the use of fertiliser and the use of natural gas for heating as is also described in Khosnevisan (2013) and OECD (2015). For cucumber greenhouse horticulture daytime temperatures should be at least 27-30 °C and soil temperatures should be at least 18 °C. This is since lower temperatures can delay plant growth and thus negatively influence yearly yield (Dickerson, 1996; as cited in Pishgar-Komleh, 2013). Previous calculations will later be used in order to describe the results of the analyses and come to an overall conclusion.

In this subsection an assessment is thus done of the “Cultivation & Harvesting and its connected GHG emissions part” of the conceptual framework visualization as can be seen in fig. 3. In summary, this subsection shows that from own calculations on the basis of data gathered from researches by CBS statline & CBS (2017), Moerkerken (2016), van der Velden (2016) and Davis (2011) appears that the amount of CO2-equivalents emitted by the

horticultural cultivation and harvesting for a kilogram of cucumbers is approximately 0.9415 kg CO2-eq. From Khosnevisan (2013), Deloitte (2015), Davis (2011) and Moerkerken (2016)

appears that the main causes of these emissions can be largely ascribed to the use of natural gas for heating and can be partially ascribed to the use of fertiliser for crop cultivation. Also Gustavsson (2011) substantiates this with the fact that greenhouses are often heated with fossil fuels.

9 _{619161,4165 kg CO}

4.2

A

GHG

In this part an assessment is done of the amount of CO2-equivalents emitted from the production processes of either LDPE and HDPE shrink wraps. With the data collected in this part the second sub question can then be answered in paragraph 5.2.

Individual shrink wrapping (ISW) is a way of wrapping commodities in order to maintain and increase shelf-life (Alavi et al., 2014). Traditionally PVC and LDPE have been applied the most for shrink wrapping but blends of different films are also used in contemporary packaging. As from Davis (2011) appears, also HDPE is applied for cucumber packaging. HDPE is denser than LDPE and is thus more rigid which can be ascribed to minimal branching of polymers. HDPE’s density is therefore approximately 0.04 g/cm3

higher. (USplastic corporation, 2008). The main difference between the plastics is that LDPE has low crystallinity in comparison to HDPE through which it becomes extra applicable as a plastic for film-blowing and shrink wrapping (Peacock, 2000).

For plastic packaging of cucumbers, the main materials applied are low density polypropylene (LDPE) and high density polypropylene (HDPE), which are both plastics for shrink and film application (PlasticsEurope, 2008). The wrapping is used in order to maintain freshness since according to Wang (1997) non-wrapped cucumbers lose about 9% of their weight, while LDPE packed cucumbers only lost 0.9% of their weight after 18 days of storage at 5 °C. Also Sudhakar Rao (2000) found that plastic wrapping can increase shelf-life of cucumber with 24 days under the right conditions. Actual numbers on cucumber food losses will be discussed in the analysis in paragraph 5.3.

As LDPE is derived from crude oil and natural gas and energy is needed for the process, this means that in the production process GHG’s are also emitted, of which the most important for LDPE production are also carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane (PlasticsEurope, 2008). In CO2-equivalents the amounts emitted are consequently 1733 kg, 460 kg and 7.97 kg per 1000 kg of LDPE polymer produced. This comes down to 2.2 kg CO2-eq. per kilogram

10 LDPE polymer produced. These emissions include both the process of making LDPE and fuel combusted during this process for energy use (Franklin associates, 2011). From PlasticsEurope (2008), however, appeared that the total amount CO2-eq. emitted is 2.13 kg per kg of LDPE polymer produced.

10 _{(1733 kg CO}

For HDPE production the amounts of CO2-eq emitted for carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are 1465 kg, 426 kg and 6.23 kg respectively (Franklin Associates, 2011). These emissions come down to an overall CO2-equivalent of 1.90 kg CO2-eq. per kg of HDPE polymer produced11

. According to PlasticsEurope (2008) emissions of HDPE production come down to 1.96 kg CO2-eq. per kg of HDPE polymer produced.

The most important inputs for both plastic production processes are thereby fossil fuels for material production and non-renewable energy for energy usage and feedstock (PlasticsEurope, 2008). As no clear substantial literature can be found about which plastic is the most commonly used plastic for wrapping cucumbers, the assumption is made that the means of HDPE and LDPE emissions are the ones to take into account for this research. This thus means that average CO2-eq emissions for CO2, CH4 and N2O are: 1599 kg

12

, 443 kg13 and 7.1 kg14

respectively per 1000 kg polymer produced. This is equal to a CO2-equivalent of 2.05 kg per kg of HDPE/LDPE polymer produced15_{. According to the data of PlasticsEurope (2008)} the CO2-equivalents of LDPE and HDPE were 2.13 kg CO2-eq and 1.96 kg CO2-eq. respectively. Taking a mean of both figures from PlasticsEurope (2008) and Franklin Associates (2011) leads to an average CO2-eq. of LDPE and HDPE combined of 2.05 kg CO2-eq per kg HDPE/LDPE polymer produced16

.

From Davis (2011) appears that for each kilogram of cucumber an average of 5 grams of HDPE wrapping is applied. As density measures of HDPE and LDPE differ 0.04 g cm-3

, the assumption is made that these density differences not substantially influence the amount of packaging material applied. From own empirical research appeared that the amount of plastic wrapping around cucumbers in the Albert Heijn supermarket averaged approximately 6 grams of HDPE/LDPE wrapping per kilo. As these figures are roughly similar to each other I assume that the average amount of LDPE/HDPE wrapping per kilogram of cucumber is 5,5 grams.

As al necessary figures are now calculated and explained, the amount of CO2 -equivalents emitted for one kilogram of HDPE/LDPE polymer produced in terms of fossil fuels needed for material production and non-renewable energy needed for energy production and

11 _{(1465 kg CO} 2 + 426 kg N2O + 6.23 kg CH4) / 1000 = 1.90 kg CO2-eq. 12 _{1733 + 1465 / 2 = 1599 kg CO} 2-eq. 13 _{460 + 426 / 2 = 443 kg CO} 2-eq. 14 _{6.23 + 7.97 / 2 = 7.1 kg CO} 2-eq. 15 _{(1599 kg CO}

2 + 443 kg N2O + 7.1 kg CH4) / 1000 = 2.05 kg CO2-eq. per kg HDPE/LDPE 16 _{(2.13 kg CO}

feedstock can be calculated. As appears from calculations above 2.05 kg CO2-equivalents per kg of HDPE/LDPE polymer produced are emitted from production. From own calculations and literature appeared that the average amount of LDPE/HDPE wrapping material applied for a kilogram of cucumber is 5.5 grams, which is 0.0055 kg polymer. Continuing to calculate with the gathered data, this implies that 0.011275 kg CO2-eq. are emitted

17

for the production of the wrapping of one kilogram of cucumbers in an LDPE/HDPE wrapping. These CO2-equivalents of emission arise mostly through the need of fossil fuels for feedstock and the use of non-renewable energy for energy application purposes within the process. In this subsection the “plastic production system” as can be seen in the visualization of the conceptual framework in figure 3 has thus been described.

4.3

A

GHG

In the third part of the literature study an assessment of the amount of harvested cucumbers that are spilled through either wrapping or not wrapping the cucumber in a LDPE/HDPE polymer packaging is done. Thereby the two conducted interviews and the email correspondence are also discussed in order to find out what possible motivations are for the Marqt, Landmarkt and ZANN organic to package fruits and vegetables.

From previous research appeared that plastic wrapping of cucumbers can have substantial effect on freshness, quality and deterioration of the cucumber. From research by Sudhakhar Rao (2010), Adimicki (1984), Dhall (2012) and Wang (1997) appears that loss of weight due to loss of water is one of the main consequences of not wrapping vegetables in a plastic film. According to Wang (1997) non-wrapped cucumbers lose about 9% of their weight, while LDPE packed cucumbers only lost 0.9% after 18 days of storage at 5 °C. Also Sudhakar Rao (2000) found that plastic wrapping can increase shelf-life of cucumbers with 24 days at a temperature of 10 °C. From Denkstatt (2015) also appears that less moisture loss due to packaging can be connected to a prolonged shelf-life. Barlow (2013) thereby cites a study of the Packaging Federation (2013) stating that a cucumber becomes dull after three days, which can be prevented by packaging the cucumber through which shelf-life can be extended up to 14 days. From personal communication (16-6-17) with A. Bons (see appendix 2) also appeared

17 _{0.0055 kg LDPE/HDPE polymer wrap kg}-1 _{cucumber x 2.05 kg CO}

2-eq kg-1 HDPE/LDPE polymer produced = 0.011275

that wrapping vegetables in general leads to a prolonged shelf-life. However, as A. Bons works for an organic and more or less sustainable supermarket, they do choose for making use of as less packaging material as possible for all their fruits and vegetables. This is mainly due to the fact that customers prefer a reduction of packaging materials and that this fits their own supermarket ideology. From the interview also appeared that it is forced by Dutch law that all organic fruits and vegetables should be wrapped differently when you carry both organic and regular products. This is in order to prevent organic and non-organic products to become mixed up, through which customers are not sure what is organic and what not.

Also, from Risse (1985) appears that unwrapped cucumbers have a weight loss of 85% in comparison to a 5% weight loss of wrapped cucumbers held for 5 weeks at a temperature of 20 °C. Multiple researches thus show that loss of weight due to water loss of cucumbers has a big share in decay and thus the loss of quality of a cucumber. From other research by Mahajan (2012) on bell peppers and shrink wrapping appears that the shrink wrapping of bell peppers can double shelf-life in comparison to unwrapped bell peppers. From the email correspondence (see appendix 5) with G. Heineke (Personal communication, 19-6-17) also appeared that since yellow and red bell peppers are not sold unpackaged anymore the Marqt has substantially decreased in-store spillage of these vegetables as they stay fresh for a longer period of time. The main reason for the Marqt to package vegetables is only the one of product quality, which thus has nothing to do with their ideology or the ideology of their customers as is the case at Landmarkt. When it is not necessary to package the vegetables this will not happen. However, when certain vegetables such as eggplants or courgettes need to be imported from Spain in the winter, they will be packed in order to keep them fresh during transport (personal communication, 19-6-17). For ZANN organics it appeared from personal communication with B. Italie (21-6-17) that they mainly prefer to not wrap any of their products as it is not really necessary when the products are handled in the right way. Also ZANN organics prefers not to package due to their own ideology of preventing packaging material. Italie (personal communication, 21-6-17) says that the most important way of keeping cucumbers fresh is to prevent them from being in contact with daylight and storing them between 10-12 °C (see appendix 4). Therefore, a wrap is not necessary. However, as most supermarkets and retailers make use of open crates which are in contact with daylight it is hard to prevent the cucumbers from daylight in the entire supply chain.

Research by Dhall (2012) shows that unwrapped cucumbers become unmarketable after 9 days of storage due to loss of firmness and weight. Wrapped cucumbers can in comparison be held for 15 days at 12 °C at 90-95% relative humidity (Dhall, 2012).

Simulation of these researches on small scale is difficult since certain important factors such as relative humidity, colour-difference measurement and constant temperatures are difficult to mimic in own research. It thus becomes clear that wrapped cucumbers can have an extended life of 14 up to 24 days when held under the right circumstances and that shelf-life can be doubled in the case of bell peppers when being wrapped. According to Dhall (2012) and the Packaging Federation (2013) cucumbers can become unsalable after just three days to nine days while being unwrapped.

Gustavsson (2010) argues that annually approximately 0.94% of cucumber store supply is thrown away in Sweden. This includes piecemeal (per piece) and packaged (in bigger quantities) sales. Almost the same numbers arise from empirical research by Sarlee et al., (2012), which shows that 1-2% of cucumbers is lost due to process losses and weight loss during storage. The Monitor Voedselverspilling by Soethoudt and Timmermans (2013) also shows a food waste percentage of 1-2% of horticultural cultivated vegetables being thrown away each year. However, as is also shown in Denkstatt (2015) scarce quantitative data is available about the prevention of food waste due to packaging.

Research by Denkstatt (2015) based on their own experiments and data obtained from retailers in Austria, shows that the amount of cucumber food waste is reduced from 9.4% to 4.6% when a cucumber is wrapped in a polyethylene wrap such as LDPE or HDPE. Gustavsson (2010) did research on the retail waste of horticultural products in 76 retail stores in Sweden, from which it became clear that 0.4% to 6.3% of horticultural products in retail stores is wasted. From Gustavsson (2010) it also appeared that packaging thereby does not influence the amount of thrown away food in the retail sector, which is contradictory to previously cited studies from which appears that shelf-life can be prolonged due to packaging. However, the assumption is made that there is a food waste reduction due to packaging, as substantial of previously cited amounts of research show that shelf-life can be extended due to packaging and thus food loss can be reduced. Denkstatt’s research (2015) thus implies that cucumber waste is decreased 4.8% when packaging the cucumbers versus not packaging the cucumbers.

From sub section 4.1 (CBS, 2017) appeared that approximately 405 thousand tons or 405000000 kilograms of cucumbers were harvested in the year of 2015. As the assumption is made that the reduction of cucumber food waste by Denkstatt (2015) of 4.8% by wrapping the

cucumbers can also be applied to the Netherlands, this thus means that 19440000 kg18 of cucumber is saved by wrapping these cucumbers in plastic. Since this amount is saved due to wrapping the cucumbers in plastic, this implies that the plastic for 19440000 kg of cucumbers is also needed. In paragraph 4.2 it appeared that 0.0055 kg polymer is needed to wrap a kilogram of cucumbers. 19440000 kg of cucumbers therefore stands for an amount of 106920 kg19

of HDPE/LDPE polymer needed in order to wrap these. From calculations also appeared that the amount of CO2-eq. for a kilogram of LDPE/HDPE wrapping was 2.05 kg CO2-eq. The emissions of the production of plastic in order to prevent 19440000 kg of cucumber becoming food waste is equal to 219186 kg20

CO2-eq.. On the other hand, the amount of CO2-equivalents associated with the harvesting and cultivation of a kilogram of cucumber is 0.9415 kg CO2-eq., as appears from section 4.1. If cucumbers were not packaged 19440000 kg of cucumbers would be wasted yearly in the Netherlands. Calculation indicates that an amount of 18302760 kg21

CO2 -equivalents would be emitted, while not gaining the cucumber yield for human consumption if the cucumbers were not wrapped since these are thrown away. The difference between emissions between wrapping or not wrapping the cucumbers is thus 18083574 kg22

CO2-eq. This difference is thus due to either wrapping cucumbers in plastic and having related emissions, or not doing this and losing cucumbers for which emissions have taken place in the “cultivation/harvesting” stage.

In this part of the research an analysis of the “packaging ⇒ yes/no” part of the conceptual framework has been done, as is shown in figure 3. In the next sub section an assessment of the connected social costs of carbon is done.

18 _{0.048 x 405000000 kg = 1944000 kg}

19 _{19440000 kg cucumber x 0.0055 kg polymer = 106920 kg polymer} 20 _{106920 kg HDPE/LDPE polymer x 2.05 kg CO}

2-eq = 219186 kg CO2-eq. 21 _{19440000 kg cucumber x 0.9415 kg CO}

2-eq. = 18302760 kg CO2-eq. 22 _{18302760 kg CO}

4.4

S

,

LDPE/HDPE

In this part of the literature analysis an assessment of the overall social costs of the emissions of the harvesting and cultivation of the cucumber, the costs of the LDPE/HDPE polymer production for cucumber wrapping and the costs of eventual extra emissions due to spillage of harvested cucumbers or production is done.

According to Tol (2005) expressing impact in monetary terms alone is not enough to compare costs. For a comparison, also the effect should be assessed that can be achieved by small alterations in GHG emissions. Fankhauser (1994) thereby adds that benefits from avoidance of greenhouse gasses and warming can only be feasible if damage can be expressed in monetary terms. For this research the choice is made to apply the amount of 31 USD per ton of carbon emission or 0.031 USD per kg of carbon emission as is peer-reviewed by Tol (2011).

With this number, calculations will be done on the SCC of carbon emitted due to harvesting and cultivation of cucumbers, plastic production for the wrapping of cucumbers and the difference in social costs between either packaging or not packaging the cucumbers and thereby having more cucumber food waste.

Firstly, 381307500 kg23

of CO2-eq. are emitted due to the cultivation and harvesting of the cucumbers in the Netherlands. The average SCC of the cultivation and harvesting stage alone is thus 11.820.532,5 USD24

for the Netherlands. The emissions of production of the plastic of preventing cucumbers to be wasted is thereby 219186 kg CO2-eq, which is equal to a social cost of carbon 6.794,77 USD25

, whereas as this packaging was not applied 18302760 kg of CO2-eq. would have been emitted since cucumbers were harvested and cultivated but lost. This amount of emissions is equal to SCC of 567.385,56 USD26

.

In this part of the research an analysis of the social costs and related CO2-equivalent emissions has thus been done as is shown in fig. 3.

23 _{405000000 x 0.9415 kg CO}

2-eq per kg cucumber = 381307500 kg CO2-eq. 24 _{381307500 kg CO}

2-eq. (due to cultivation)X 0.031 USD/kg CO2-eq (SCC). = 11.820.532,5 USD 25 _{219186 kg CO}

2-eq (due to plastic production) x 0.031 USD/kg CO2-eq. (SCC) = 6.794,77 USD 26 _{18302760 kg CO}

5.0

R

In this section answers on the sub questions will be given in consequent order in order to eventually come to a grounded answer and well substantiated conclusion in section 6.0. The sub questions are summed up below:

1.0 What amount of GHG emissions arise from cucumber harvesting and what are the main drivers of these emissions?

2.0 What amount of GHG emissions arise from the production of LDPE and HDPE and what are the main drivers of these emissions?

3.0 What amount of cucumbers is wasted and what causes the spillage of these cucumbers?

4.0 What are the social costs of cucumber harvesting, LDPE/HDPE production and cucumber food losses due to wrapping or not wrapping the cucumbers?

5.1

R

1

In section 4.1, considering the first sub question it has been argued that CO2-equivalent emissions of cultivation and harvesting of cucumbers is approximately 0.9415 kg CO2-eq. per kilogram of cucumber harvested. The main causes of these emissions can be ascribed to several factors according to multiple researches. The main causes thereby are the use of natural gas for horticultural greenhouse heating and the use of fertiliser for crop cultivation. Overall cucumber yield in the Netherlands was thereby 405 thousand tons in the year of 2015.

5.2

R

2

From section 4.2, considering the second sub question it can be concluded that both LDPE and HDPE polymers are used for packaging of cucumbers. Therefore an average of both CO2-equivalent emissions is applied which comes down to an average of CO2-eq emissions for CO2, CH4 and N2O of: 1599 kg

27

, 443 kg28

and 7.1 kg29

respectively per 1000 kg polymer 27 _{1733 + 1465 / 2 = 1599 kg CO} 2-eq. 28 _{460 + 426 / 2 = 443 kg CO} 2-eq. 29 _{6.23 + 7.97 / 2 = 7.1 kg CO} 2-eq.

produced. This implies an average of 2.05 kg CO2-eq. emission per kilogram of HDPE/LDPE polymer produced. As approximately 0.005 kg of polymer is used for the packaging of one kg of cucumber, this means that 0.01 kg CO2-eq. is emitted during the production of one kg HDPE/LDPE polymer used for the wrapping of one kg of cucumbers. These emissions can be ascribed to the use of fossil fuels for feedstock and energy use for the production of the polymers during the production process.

5.3

R

3

Section 4.3 shows that the plastic wrapping can prolong shelf-life substantially in comparison to not wrapping the cucumbers. The results of not wrapping cucumbers leads to loss of weight due to water loss which is the main cause of perishability and thus un-saleability of the products. From the interview with A. Bons (personal communication, 17-6-17), appeared that indeed wrapping prolongs shelf-life substantially. However, the choice of not wrapping products in the Landmarkt has to do with the fact that customers prefer less plastic use and that this in line with the supermarket’s vision and ideology. It also appeared that it is forced by Dutch law that all organic products should be wrapped differently to make sure that customers can see the difference between organic and non-organic products and that the Dutch food-authority can also check whether the supermarkets really sell organic products. The main reason for Marqt to package their vegetables is product quality as appeared from personal communication with G. Heineke (19-6-17). This thus has nothing to do with customer preferences or own ideology about using less packaging material as is the case with Landmarkt. From personal communication with Italie (21-6-17) appears that it is not necessary to wrap fruits and vegetables when they are handled in the right way in the whole supply chain. This implies that cucumbers should be transported and stocked away from daylight on an average temperature of 10-12 °C.

From Denkstatt (2015) appears that 4.8% of cucumber food waste can be prevented due to packaging the cucumbers in a LDPE/HDPE wrap. For the Netherlands this means that 19440000 kg of cucumbers would be wasted due to not packaging these cucumbers. This equals an amount of 18302760 kg of CO2-equivalents that would be emitted due to harvesting and cultivation of the cucumber crops in horticulture. The scenario of wasting 19440000 kg of cucumbers can thereby be prevented by wrapping the cucumbers in a plastic wrap which would cause 219186 kg of CO2-equivalents to be emitted. This implies a difference of 18083574 kg of CO2-equivalents on yearly basis in the Netherlands.

5.4

R

4

From section 4.4 it appears that marginal social costs of carbon for cultivation and harvesting of cucumbers are 11.820.532,5 USD and that the SCC of preventing cucumbers from becoming food waste are 6.794,77 USD. As these cucumbers would not have been wrapped 19440000 kg of cucumbers would have been wasted which equals an amount of 18302760 kg of CO2-eq. and social costs of 567.385,56 USD. These are thus the present monetary costs of all direct and indirect losses by third persons as a result of unrestrained economic activities, which lead to more emissions. These losses may take the form of less agricultural productivity, impacts on human health, loss of property due to sea-level rising and diminished biodiversity, according to Kapp (1963) and Newbold (2010)

6.0

D

This thesis about the emissions and arising social costs of carbon arising from either wrapping or not wrapping cucumbers in plastic has been written on the basis of scientific literature, two semi-structured interviews and an email correspondence, as is described in the methodology. However, some points of discussion remain, which will be explained here.

First of all, literature on sector-specific horticultural emissions in the Netherlands is scarcely available as I found out in the course of writing this thesis. Therefore, the assumption is made that horticultural crops have approximately the same emissions in the Netherlands.

Secondly, spillage data due to not wrapping cucumbers from Denkstatt (2015) is applied. More specific sources were hard to be found considering this specific subject and therefore I only applied their data. However, the difference in spillage might be smaller than Denkstatt (2015) proposes. If this were the case, wrapping the cucumbers would still be better in terms of emissions and social costs of carbon, as relatively little CO2-equivalents are emitted due to LDPE/HDPE production. This is since the amount of emissions related to wrapping a kilogram of cucumbers is lower than accepting the emissions related to food spillage due to not wrapping the cucumbers.

Thirdly, distribution and transportation of cucumbers and their inputs are not taken into account as this would widen the scope of this research too much in order to stay investigative in the amount of time given for this thesis. Taking these factors into account might increase the the outcomes of CO2-eq. emissions.

Fourthly, the concept and the figures considering the social costs of carbon are relatively diverging as future climate change implications are hard to predict and thus this research is based on best estimated and most trustworthy research available.

Fifthly, for this research only the production of plastic packaging and its related emissions are included. This is since including the recycling and waste management of the plastics would widen the scope of the research too much and could therefore make it unclear and too much to assess. Also costs of plastics ending up in the oceans are not taken into account as this would also widen the scope of this thesis too much.

Sixthly, from the interview with Italie (personal communication, 21-6-17) appears that it is very important for cucumbers to store cucumbers away from the daylight and in the right temperatures. However, as almost all retailers make use of open crates this is does not happen often. An implication could thus be to transport and store cucumbers away from daylight and on the right temperatures in order to prevent deterioration. Another option would be to improve throughput; instead of having plenty of cucumbers in the supermarket in the daylight, one could choose to refill the cucumbers more often and store them in places of 10-12 °C.

Finally, from the interviews and email correspondence appear some contradictory facts. Italie (personal communication, 21-6-17) says that packaging is not necessary when the products are handled in the right way and that is does not substantially make a difference in shelf-life. However, Heineke (personal communication, 19-6-17) argues that they have almost zero in-store spillage of their bell peppers since they are not sold unwrapped anymore. Also substantial amounts of research are assessed which all imply that wrapping does improve shelf-life of cucumbers and other vegetables.

6.1

R

As said before, scarce data on sector-wise horticultural crop emissions is available for both the Netherlands and global cases. It would therefore be advisable to do research on emissions of greenhouses specifically. These emissions are now often included in general data about emissions of agricultural activity. As livestock and other ways of farming are also included in these data and produce far more emissions, it is not clear which part of emissions caused by horticulture. Also, data on specific emission reduction due to packaging versus not packaging foodstuff might be extended as from this thesis appears that the differences in emissions are substantial and thus might be applied for other vegetables and foodstuff.