PONE-D-20-30816

Waste generation and carbon emissions of a hospital kitchen in the US: potential for waste diversion and carbon reductions

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Cassandra L. Thiel,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Balasubramani Ravindran, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The manuscript technically sound and authors made a good attempt to quantize the food waste generated in a hospital kitchen of US and will be very helpful for the society to take actions to reduce the amount of food waste and utilize the generated food waste for energy production and composting purposes which will also help to reduce GHG emission. As author already mentioned that the study is based on one day audit, if it will be elaborated for long time with more results, i.e., characterization of food waste for its utilization for energy generation, the research will be more fruitful for the society.

I want to suggest some minor corrections which will help the author to make the manuscript more fit to publish in PLOS ONE:

1. 75% + should be written as 'more than 75%' (line 87) and 90%+ should be written as 'more than 90%' (line 88).

2. Are terms 'all day audit' (line 143) and 'detailed audits' (line 145) given by author? or if reported before than reference should be added.

Reviewer #2: 1. Introduction could be more concise to make it easy for understanding. A lack of flow between the sentences are observed. Too much literature cited but lack of deep discussion observed.

2. Research highlights could be added that include main findings instead of general statements.

3. Please update your work by comparing the latest articles published in journals.

4. In scientific publication reference of website is not acceptable e.g US EPA. Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator 2018.

5. Some of the references seems incomplete like Mirosa M, Munro H, Mangan-Walker E, Pearson D. Reducing waste of food left on plates. British Food Journal. 2016. There are more

6. Reseult lacks statistical analysis

7. Limitations itself says the story of data, as Variability obviously exists by day of the week, season, and year, and by the way in which a hospital’s food service operate. Such study requires long term study. Study is very concise.

Reviewer #3: The manuscript titled " Waste generation and carbon emissions of a hospital kitchen in the US: potential for waste diversion and carbon reductions" by Thiel et al., did a survey of waste generation from NYC hospital from New York, categorized the biodegradable and recyclable fractions, quantified and calculated the GHG emission contributions by its current disposal practices. The study also proposed few alternate options to recycle the waste as compost and reduce the burden of landfill operation in future. The study is very basic and concluded based on one singe data set, which is not realistic. The composition and quantity of the waste might not be the same throughout the year, while the study doesn't include any scientific elements. Composting process also emit lot of GHGs (N2O and CO2) and this would be more than landfill based GHG emissions that is calculated in this study. Overall the paper required more detailed study and data collection, interpretations to be accepted for publication. Composting process is not ideal food waste, instead anaerobic digestion of food waste and energy recovery could be considered as a option. Cost and GHG emissions from the food waste processing by landfilling, composting and anaerobic digestion need to be compared and discussed.

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Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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Waste generation and carbon emissions of a hospital kitchen in the US: potential for waste diversion and carbon reductions

PONE-D-20-30816R1

Dear Dr. Cassandra L. Thiel,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Balasubramani Ravindran, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Authors have incorporated all the suggested corrections in a very well manner. I wish for the best and suggest that this study must be elaborated with more techniques and results to enhance the fruitfulness of the process. Authors can also make an attempt to produce value added products from kitchen waste via anaerobic digestion process.

Reviewer #3: Authors addressed all the questions and revised the manuscript. Now it can accepted for publication.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #3: No