CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Research

The environmental impacts from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) such as
Jati Food Stall which one of micro type enterprise are often overlooked by
decision-makers. This is because, micro type enterprise difficult to reach such firms,
the probability of not having enough data records and also the likely low number of
this enterprise with any environmental implementation system. Therefore, micro type
enterprise most likely give a lot of problems due to their concern about their
surrounding and the impacts to the environmental problems due to their actions.
Therefore, by doing LCA in their business activities, they can overcome the problems
and improve their business in eco-friendly ways.

According to Guidelines for Life Cycle Assessment A Code of Practice, Life

cycle Assessment (LCA) basically a process to evaluate the environmental burdens
associated with a product, process, or activity by identifying and quantifying energy
and materials used and also waste released to the environment. In other words, it is to
assess the impact of those energy and materials used and releases to the environment,
and to identifying and evaluating the opportunities to affect environmental
improvements. The assessment includes the entire life cycle of the product, process or
activity, encompassing, extracting and processing raw materials.

Life cycle assessment has emerged as valuable decision support tool for both
policy makers and also industry in assessing the cradle to grave impacts of a product
process. There are three force that driving this evolution which firstly, government
regulations are moving in the direction of life cycle accountability where the notion
that manufacturer is responsible not only for direct production impact but also impacts
from product input, use, transport and disposal. Secondly, business is participating in
voluntary initiatives which contain LCA and product stewardship components such as
ISO 14001 which seek to foster continuous improvement through better
environmental management systems. Lastly, environmental prefer-ability has emerged
as a criterion in both consumer markets.

The business that had been chosen to implement the LCA is food service business,
and they are the most favorite place of students from nearby colleges because of their
delicious foods. Jati Food Stall is a small restaurant located in Taman Jati, Simpang
Empat, Malacca. This food stall is being run by a Malay owner and an Indian Owner.
They sell food items for breakfast and lunch for the area people and college students.
This is because the size of the business is small and they sell food for around 50-60
people per day. They cook food in a small amount and the profit they gain is in a
small range. They used to sell the traditional foods of Malays and Indians. The survey
will be held on week 10 to week 11 according to academic calendar.

1.2 Goals
The objectives of this approach are:

To support (SMEs) in their business development by expanding their horizons

beyond the sphere

To identify new areas for improvement and promotion of the products and
service offered

To analyze the feedback from the Q&A form to indicate the real status of this
type of business in environmental aspects.

1.3 Problem Statement

Jati Food Stall is a small medium Enterprise being run by two ladies. They do not
have resources to urge them about the environmental impacts caused by their business
activities. They do not understand the geese of environmental performances that could
reduce the cost and increase the productivity. Due to unawareness of the laws and
regulations that they need to comply to run this food stall, they are generating and
releasing so much of environmental pollutant that causing a very significant
environmental impacts. They having difficulties in preventing the pollution in terms
of air, water, food waste and solid waste management. Because of this premise located
at the residential place, there are customers complaining due to un-hygiene tables,
floor and solid waste management. There are also uninvited rodent and pests like flies,
rats and cockroach due to dirty drainage system. The worker basically, do not treat the
kitchen residue wastewater and discharge the wastewater to the nearby drainage. The

drainage is connected along with the residential drain and could probably can cause
blockage due to improper discharge of the wastewater. Last but not least, the air
pollution might be occurred from the nearby drainage as well as improper ventilation
of air from the cooking activities.

1.4 Functional Unit

Food production per week which is kg/week.
Food Waste per week which is kg/week.

1.5 System Boundaries

Diagram above shows the process flow activities from cradle to grave of
the Jati Food Stall service. Starting from the environmental sources, where the owner
will order all the ingredients that needed such as green vegetables, meats, fish and
others cooking things such as cooking oil, salt, sugar and so forth. After that, the
ingredients will be delivered via transportation by lorry or car. At this stage the usage
of transportation will produce air pollution as well as energy consumption such as
fuels.

Next, the ingredient need to be cleaned and rinse in order to make sure it
is clean from any unwanted chemical or substances. The climax process is the
processing the food where the employees will have activities like cutting, mixing,
steaming, boiling, and frying the foods. At this stages, air pollution will be generating
from the cooking activities, the use of a large amount of heat used to prepared the
food in a short time and also the use of water tap to clean the fry pan used after and
before cooking which the wastewater will be discharge at nearby drain. After that, the
cooked food will be served to the customers. At this stage they used plastic plate and
plastic glass with plastic straw to serve the foods and drinks. Lastly, to clean up all
dishes, the water tap is used again and generate water pollution, food waste as well as
solid waste such as plastic straw and tissue paper.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Company Background

Jati Food stall is located at No. 1/12, Jalan Tenggiri, Taman Jati Indah, 78000
Alor Gajah, Melaka. The owner of the Malay food stall is Puan Hajah Maimunah bt
Abdul Hamid and the owner of the Indian food stall is Puan Kamichi a/p Baktha. This
micro-type enterprise has 3 employees for Indian food stall and 4 employees for
Malay food stall. Puan Maimunah sell Malay traditional foods basically for breakfast,
lunch and late evening, while, Puan Kamichi sell Indian traditional foods also for
breakfast, lunch and late evening. Both food stall operating business is 8 hours a day,

Figure 1: Jati Food Stall Premises

work for 6 days per week, and for every Sunday is their off-day. Puan Maimunah food
stall gain profit about RM 5,000 per month while for Puan Kamichi, she earns profit
about RM 4,000 per month. Therefore, the operation unit for this study is based on
food production per week which is kg/week.
Below is the menu list for the food and drinks that the organization establish
for both Puan Hajah Maimunah stall and Puan Kamichi stall:

Figure 2: Drink Menu at Puan Hajah Maimunah stall

Figure 3: Food Menu at Puan Maimunah stall

Figure 4: Indian Food Menu at Puan Kamichi stall

Below is the general process flow of the production of food process which is from
cradle to grave:

Diagram 1: Process Flow Diagram of the Jati Food Stall Activities

Diagram above shows the process flow activity from cradle to grave of the Jati
Food Stall service. Starting from ingredients will be extract from environmental
source, where the owner will order all the ingredients that needed such as green
vegetables, meats, fish and others cooking things such as cooking oil, salt, sugar and
so forth. The extraction of source from environment will be effect on the quantity of
the source that available. For example, collection of vegetables from the farm will
cause the quantity of the left vegetables will be less.

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After that, the ingredients will be stored according to their characteristic

either inside the freezer, refrigerator or at the room temperature. For example, the
chicken, meat and fish will be stored inside the freezer, while vegetables and fruits
will be stored inside the refrigerator, and other dry things such as onions, potatoes and
variety of sauce will be stored at room temperature. At this stage the usage of storage
such as refrigerator and freezer will produce the chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) that cause
the depletion of ozone layer thus lead to global warming.

Next, the ingredient need to be clean and rinse in order to make sure it is clean
from any unwanted chemical or substances. The fresh ingredients such as vegetables
and fruit that collected direct from farm basically exposed to the pesticide,
insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and rodenticides that are toxic chemical that are
used to kill insect, weeds, fungus and rodents in order to protect the vegetables from
harm must be clean before used. The climax process is the processing the food where
the employees will have activities like cutting, mixing, steaming, boiling, and frying
the foods. At this stages, air pollution will be generating from the cooking activities,
the use of a large amount of heat used to prepared the food in a short time and also the
use of water tap to clean the fry pan used after and before cooking which the kitchen
residue wastewater will be discharge at nearby drain.

11

The cooked food will to be served to the customers. The used frying pans and
spatula, and bowls that had been used again must be wash and indirectly will generate
wastewater. By this stage they used plastic plate and plastic glass with plastic straw to
serve the foods and drinks. For customer who would like to take away, the food would
be wrap with polystyrene food storage and plastic bag. After finish eaten, to clean up
all dishes, the water tap is used again and generate water pollution, food waste as well
as solid waste such as plastic straw and tissue paper.

The final stage of this process flow is the recycling and disposal which more
to human discretion. After done eating, the dishes will wash and all the food waste or
leftover food and also other wrapping things will be throw in the dustbin. The amount
of garbage then will be collected by the Kualiti Alam to be dump at the landfill. The
food that had been process and digest to absorb the nutrients used for human body,
and unwanted substances will be then excrete from the body.

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CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

There are two main methods that will be used to analyze the life cycle of the food stall
business. First is survey and then will be followed by product assessment matrix.

1. Survey
In order to answer these questions, a survey will be conducted on the food stall
business that participating in the project (Kurczewski Part 1: Background and
framework). The research is based on individual in-depth interviews (Boyce and
Neale 2006), while respondents are representatives of the business or persons directly
connected with the implementation of LCA in individual business. A questionnaire for
the environmental service assessment was divided into four sections:

Section 1: The main goal of this part of the questionnaire is to obtain a picture of a
company and its market position. Questions in Part 1 focused, on the one hand, on
general issues, such as name, number of employees, organizational and legal structure
and scope of business, while on the other hand, they referred to information on
management systems and allocation of powers (in relation to major areas of business),
the characteristics of suppliers (scope of business, size of the organization and
possibility of subsidy) and clients (institutional versus individual, scope and size of
the institutions) and the business's market share.

13

Section 2: The second part of the questionnaire concerned environmental services

implemented in a company and included issues related to the object and scope of the
LCA, the positions of people who agreed to carry out the study and supervised its
progress, the method of communication with a company, the procedure for collecting
inventory data and motives for implementing the service. Here, some of the
information is also known to persons responsible for providing the service in a
company, it will be entered in advance, before an interview.

Section 3: This section contain questions designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the
analyses from the point of view of the company. Representatives of the food stall will
be evaluated the usefulness of LCA results and determine their actual or possible
applications. They also will give feedback whether the LCA conducted changed their
management models, conduct or thinking about their products. In addition, they can
identify issues that caused most problems in the implementation of the environmental
service.

Section 4: The last part of the questionnaire is designed to obtain information as to

whether and to what extent the company undertook activities related to environmental
protection or environmental management. Preliminary information of this type will be
obtained from the companies prior to the classification of the companies for different
areas of the project.

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Product Assessment Matrix

The Environmentally Responsible Product Assessment Matrix will be used to

determine the significant environmental impacts and its effect to environment and
human health. The five life cycle stages of Jati Food Stall are:

Resources Extraction

Storage Process

Cleaning and Cooking

Serving to Customer Process

Recycling and Disposal (Human Excretion)

The Five Environmental Stressors are:

Natural Resources Depletion

Green House Gas Emission

Eutrophication

Human Health and Safety

Climate Change

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Env.Impacts
LCA
stages

Natural
Resources
Depletion

Green
House
Gas
Emission

Eutrophication

Human
Health
And Safety

Climate
change

Resources
Extraction
Storage
Process
Cleaning and
Cooking
Process
Serving
Process
Recycling and
Disposal

Table 1: Shows the Matrix for Assessment of Food Stall Life Cycle Stages.

In this approach, we will study the resources extraction, product manufacture, product
delivery, product consumption, recycling and disposal and assigns to each element of
the matrix an integer rating from 0 (highest impact, a very negative evaluation) to 3
(lowest impact, an exemplary evaluation).

16

CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 2: The Environmentally Responsible Product Assessment Matrix Table

Env.Impacts
LCA
stages

Natural
Resources
Depletion

Green
House
Gas
Emission

Eutrophication Human
Health
And Safety

Climate
change

1,1

1,2

1,3

1,4

1,5

2,1

2,2

2,3

2,4

2,5

3,1

3,2

3,3

3,4

3,5

Serving
Process

4,1

4,2

4,3

4,4

4,5

Recycling and
Disposal

5,1

5,2

5,3

5,4

5,5

Resources
Extraction
Storage
Process
Cleaning and
Cooking
Process

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Table 3: Shows the Significant Level Scoring

Score
0

Explanation
Extremely significant
No action taken to reduce the impact
Expected to happen in ALL circumstances
Immediate action required

Highly significant
No Action taken to reduce the impacts
Expected to happen in MOST circumstances
Urgent Management Attention Required

Significant level is medium

Basic Actions taken to reduce the impact
Will PROBABLY happen in most circumstances
Management Attention as soon as possible

Low Significant Level

Might occur at some time
Longer-term action may be required through process of
continuous improvement

Tables below shows the life cycle stages in this business activities and the
environmental impacts caused by each of this stages. The environmental impacts also
have been assigned with element scoring for further discussion and prevention plans.

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4.1 RESOURCES EXTRACTION RATINGS

ELEMENT DESIGNATION

EXPLANATION

ELEMENT
VALUE
1

Natural Resources Depletion

(1,1)

Extraction of Fish, Chicken and

Vegetables from farm.
Usage of energy in the form of fuel
for boat in fish catching process.

Greenhouse Gas Emission

(1,2)

Due to transporting the food

sources to shop causing Gas
emission in the form burning fossil
fuels for car.
Excessive land usage that reduce
the land areas that absorb CO2.
The erosion and leaching of
fertilizer that being used in the
farm for vegetable productions
The food residues from source that
will be thrown in drainage.
The breeding of chickens in farm
that causes atmospheric deposition
of nitrogen.

Usage of sharp objects and

harmful substances for fish
catching process and harvesting
vegetable.
Due to excess extraction from
farms and land usage causes less
land areas to absorb heat and CO2
causes the temperature to rise.
Due to excessive catchment of
fish, will causes change in water
table that consequently disturbs the
precipitation cycle.
Nitrous Oxide production from
farm practices such as soil
cultivation
increases
the
temperature of earth.

Eutrophication (1,3)

Human Health and Safety

(1,4)

Climate Change (1,5)

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4.2 STORAGE PROCESS RATINGS

ELEMENT
DESIGNATION
Natural
Resources
Depletion (1,1)
Greenhouse
Gas
Emission (1,2)

Eutrophication (1,3)

Human Health and

Safety (1,4)
Climate Change (1,5)

EXPLANATION
Usage of Water for storing vegetables
Usage of Electricity, such as lights and
fan to clean the raw products and to
store the products in Refrigerator that
produces CFC.
Does not produce any source of
nutrients
No any significant impacts due to
Storage process
Refregirator with CFC will causes
ozone depletion and increases the
temperature of earth

ELEMENT
VALUE
3
1

3
3
2

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4.3 COOKING AND CLEANING PROCESS RATINGS

ELEMENT
DESIGNATION
Natural
Resources
Depletion (1,1)

Green House Gas

Emission (1,2)

Eutrophication (1,3)

Human Health and

Safety (1,4)

Climate Change (1,5)

EXPLANATION
Excessive Water usage for cooking
process
Usage of natural gas for cooking
Electrical facilities usage in Cooking
Process such as lights and fan.
Usage of Natural gas for cooking
process
The waste in the form of food residues
produced that causing gas emission due
to poor handling.
Discharge of hand soaps and detergents
that containing Phosphate.
The food residues and waste that
generated from cleaning process being
thrown to drainage system without
proper management
Usage of Sharp items that might cause
physical hazards to workers.
No proper ventilation might cause heat
strokes to employers
Emission of CO2 from the usage of
natural gas will increase the temperature.
Usage of electricity for cooking process
emits global warming potential gases

ELEMENT
VALUE
1

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4.4 SERVING PROCESS RATINGS

ELEMENT
DESIGNATION

EXPLANATION

Natural
Resources
Depletion (1,1)
Green House
Emission (1,2)

Gas

Eutrophication (1,3)

Human Health and

Safety (1,4)
Climate Change (1,5)

Usage of natural resources to produce

packing materials such as plastics and
papers.
The Food residues from leftover food
that increase the amount of waste
generated.
The food residue and waste produced by
food leftovers that being disposed
Usage of detergents and hand soaps
The food residues that being washed off
in sink
Usage of non-biodegradable plastic for
packing food for customer that could
causes Carcinogenic.
Deforestation to produce packing
materials restores the CO2 and increases
the global temperature

ELEMENT
VALUE

4.5 RECYCLING AND DISPOSAL RATINGS

ELEMENT
DESIGNATION

EXPLANATION

Natural
Resources
Depletion (1,1)
Green House
Emission (1,2)

Gas

Eutrophication (1,3)

Human Health and

Safety (1,4)
Climate Change (1,5)

There is no any recycling method is

being applied increasing the usage of raw
material
Poor handling of generated waste
Transportation in the form of fuel to
transfer the waste from the shop to
disposal site
Discharge of detergents and soaps that
contains phosphate
Discharge of partially treated or
untreated sewage that contains nitrates
and phosphates
Poor management of waste that causes
breeding of disease caused vectors such
as flies and rodents.
Methane gas production from the
disposal of food waste will increase the
temperature of earth

ELEMENT
VALUE

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Table 4 : Shows the total score given for each life cycle stages based on the
environmental impacts.

Env.Impacts

Natural
Resources
Depletion

LCA
stages
Resources
Extraction
Storage
Process
Cleaning
and
Cooking
Process
Serving
Process
Recycling
and
Disposal
TOTAL

Green
Eutrophication
House
Gas
Emission

Human
Health
And
Safety

Climate
change

TOTAL

6/15

12/15

3/15

6/15

7/15

7/15

6/15

7/15

8/15

6/15

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Table 5: Shows the Prioritization Table for Environmental Impacts and the main
sources of the impacts.

ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACTS

SCORE

PRIORITIZATION

Greenhouse gas

6/15

Climate Change

6/15

Natural Resources
depletion
Eutrophication

7/15

7/15

Human Health and

Safety

8/15

MAIN SOURCES
Cooking and
Cleaning Process
Natural resources
Extraction
Serving Process
Cooking and
Cleaning Process
Serving Process

Table 6: Shows the Prioritization Table for Life Cycle Stages and the main
Environmental impacts of the activity.
LCA
STAGES
Cooking and
Cleaning
Process
Natural
resources
Extraction
Serving
Process

SCORE

PRIORITIZATION

ENV. IMPACTS

3/15

6/15

6/15

Recycling and
Disposal

Storage
Proces

7/15

12/15

Green House
Gas Emission
Eutrophication
Climate Change

Natural
Resources
depletion
Human Health
and Safety
Human Health
and Safety
GHG emission
Eutrophication
Green House
Gas Emission

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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusion
As for conclusion, there are few process that has been detected to cause high impacts
to environment. Cooking and cleaning process, natural resources extraction and
serving have been found as the most significant process that has lowest environmental
performances. These business processes need to be improved to reduce its footprint
on environment. The highest environmental impact caused by this business activities
are greenhouse gas and climate change. Mitigation measures must be taken to reduce
the impacts and enhance the SME to be more environmental friendly.

5.2 Recommendation
The mitigation measures that we suggested for this SMEs are application of
dematerialization concept. The main idea of this concept is to reduce usage of
resources and usage of energy. This can be applied by reducing the usage of electricity
appliances and switch off the electricity when not in use. Collecting all the food
residues and apply organic composting in backyard will also enhance the usage of
organic fertilizer. Cooking an appropriate and optimum amount of food to reduce the
usage of natural gas is also one of the way to apply dematerialization concept and it
will also consequently avoid food waste generation.

25

To increase the habitat sustainability, prolonged the order of ingredients and

always ordered in bulk. Application of P2 techniques also can be applied to reduce the
environmental impacts causing by this business activities and enhance a good
environmental performance. The first technique that can be applied will be a good
housekeeping. This can be by changing routine maintenance or operation routines to
minimize or eliminate waste generation. To minimize gas emission from kitchen, they
can install the dilution ventilation, or can apply the wet method near the cooking area.
On the other hand, input Substitution should be applied in this processes is by
buying and encouraging organic vegetables, to reduce the usage of pesticides in farms
and reduce eutrophication source. The owner of these shops also should eliminate
plastics for packaging and substitute with non-biodegradable plastics. Moreover, to
reduce electricity consumption, use the appliance that have label of eco-friendly or
other energy saving appliances. To reduce the usage of detergent, use a small volume
of concentrated detergent and dilute it for washing the dishes. Using a solid form of
detergent than liquid will also reduce the generation of nitrate and phosphate sources.
On site Reuse is one of a very efficient method of P2 techniques. This is by using
residues from tea bag as a fertilizer for plants and vegetables and reusing plastics and
bottles. To reduce the oil discharge from kitchen residue, they might separate the oil
before clean the fry pan, and installing the organic water treatment at the kitchen
using corn cobs, sand and charcoal. Furthermore, to minimize water consumption,
they should use recycled water or rain water for rinsing and washing. Off-site reuse is
by applying composting in backyard.

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