Relações e oportunidades entre a Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV) e a economia circular: uma revisão bibliográfica sistemática aplicada ao ciclo de vida da cerveja

Abstract

Unbridled economic growth, caused by increased consumption, has aggravated the current scenario of depletion of the environment through the generation of waste and emissions. The main consequence of this is the depletion of natural resources, arousing the interest of academics, governments, and industrialists for the sustainable agenda. In this context, the Circular Economy emerged as an economic model capable of promoting the regeneration of natural systems, through creative and technological solutions capable of identifying opportunities to reduce waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in constant use. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool commonly used in the literature to point out the main focuses of impact generation in the production chain, in addition to highlighting opportunities for improving environmental performance, assisting in the selection of indicators, and assisting with information for the decision-making through managers, both at industrial and governmental levels. Although LCA and Circular Economy are both associated with reducing environmental impact, there are still opportunities in terms of the amount of published works that address the relationship between the two areas. Thus, the objective of the present work is to identify the relationships and opportunities in using the Life Cycle Assessment as a tool to identify environmental critical points throughout the beer production life cycle, proposing solutions for these potential impacts that are aligned with the agenda of a Circular Economy. To achieve this objective, this study used the Systematic Review of Literature applied to the identification of relationships and opportunities between LCA and Circular Economy, in addition to LCA studies carried out to evaluate the environmental performance of beer production. As a result, it was identified that the main hotspots are caused by the production of raw material, mainly barley, in addition to the stage of transport and processing of beer. These three critical points were unanimous in all LCA studies carried out in the brewing sector, selected to compose the RBS of this work. The alternatives proposed to reduce these impacts were: reuse of co-products generated from beer processing to increase the nutritional value of animal feed, in addition to using it as a raw material for generating biogas through anaerobic digestion; proposal to implement a reverse logistics program for the reuse of glass packaging, considering that the distribution of this product is local and, also, suggestion of collaboration between local companies to share logistical resources. Finally, a suggestion for future work is to carry out a Life Cycle Assessment, through a case study of a microbrewery located in Campos Gerais, PR in order to validate and enrich the systematic literature review carried out on this sector.