Cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of pasteurized milk production in Uzbekistan identifies environmental hotspots and improvement opportunities

Abstract

Dairy production is an important component of Uzbekistan's food system but is associated with environmental burdens. This study presents a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) of pasteurized milk production in Uzbekistan to quantify environmental impacts, identify hotspots, evaluate uncertainty, and assess environmental improvement options. A case-based inventory informed by farm records and national production data was developed for 1000 kg of pasteurized milk at the factory gate, covering feed production, dairy farming, transport, processing, and packaging. Environmental impacts were assessed using ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H). Global warming potential (GWP), characterized water consumption, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, and fossil resource scarcity were 1537.8 kg CO 2 -eq, 1509.5 m 3 , 13.40 kg SO 2 -eq, 0.775 kg P-eq, and 158.1 kg oil-eq, respectively. Dairy-farm activities were the largest GWP contributor (46.6%), while feed production accounted for all characterized water consumption and dominated freshwater eutrophication (81.8%). Feed production and dairy-farm activities contributed 52.9% and 47.1% of terrestrial acidification, respectively, whereas packaging dominated fossil resource scarcity (65.8%). Monte Carlo analysis quantified model uncertainty, while sensitivity analysis identified methane/manure emissions as the main GWP uncertainty driver, irrigation demand for water consumption, fertilizer nutrient losses for acidification and eutrophication, and packaging factors for fossil resource scarcity. The integrated inventory-level sustainability scenario reduced GWP, water consumption, acidification, eutrophication, and fossil resource scarcity by 23.9%, 47.5%, 25.0%, 25.0%, and 4.5%, respectively. These findings support impact-specific strategies for improving the environmental sustainability of the assessed dairy production system and provide evidence relevant to dairy-sector improvement in Uzbekistan.