Modeling American Household Fluid Milk Consumption and their Resulting Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this article, a discrete event simulation is used to determine strategies or opportunities for reducing food waste generation from milk consumption in different household typologies according to some input parameters. While the study is interesting, the main weakness detected in this article is a lack of novelty since a quite similar model was already developed in one of the referenced publications (The Milk Model: Simulating Food Waste in the Home) and the authors present results from the application of a more simplified version of that DES model. Maybe if the authors had developed some of the more complex improvements mentioned in the discussion, it would have been an innovative and interesting approach. Unfortunately, in its current form, it is considered that it does not generate any scientific innovation other than the application to the U.S. territory.

Author Response

Please, see the attached document. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper  "Modeling American Household Fluid Milk Consumption and their Resulting Greenhouse Gas Emissions" is of interest for the readers of the journal. However, it should be significantly improved before being considered for publication.

Main comments:

- Why is life cycle assessment a keyword, when life cycle assessment  in not mentioned in the whole text?

- Affiliation information of the author should be provided.

- Abstract is longer than recommended (200 words)

- A proper state of the art review should be included in order to put your work into perspective.

- The LCA information should be comprehensive, follow ISO 14040 and 14044 , and be included in the main text

- Line 79: A reference for SimEvents software should be included in the list of references

-Line 110: Reference for simulink

- Line 159: Reference for Matlab

- Figure 2 quality could be improved to enhance readibility

- A conclusions section would be interesting

- Appendix A could also be provided as supplementary material

- Clarify if: "This research received no external funding" or "The authors acknowledge ... the School of Packaging for providing funding through the Undergraduate Research Program"

Author Response

Please, see the attached document. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Review comments on “Modeling American Household Fluid Milk Consumption and their Resulting Greenhouse Gas Emissions " by Stankiewicz et al. 

The topic is not new, nevertheless, it is of some interest for the readers of Sustainability.

The overall recommendation is to reconsider this article after a MAJOR revision. 

My main comments are as below :

GENERAL COMMENTS: 

- Please add authors affiliations data. 

INTRODUCTION: 

- Line 42-47: This section is rather vague without clearly describing the examined problem and the scientific background. More elaboration needed.

- Another important shortcoming is that the author do not highlight the contribution of their manuscript in comparison to the work that has been performed by previous researchers. Please go it more details what others done.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

- Methods description needs improvement. How was the data collected/analyzed? 

- Line 87: Please improve the figure 1 (text size) readability 

- Line 101: Table is not fully compliant with the instruction provided: please, re-edit it accordingly. All Figures, Schemes and Tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their number of appearance (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, Table 1, etc.).

- Line 115: Table is not fully compliant with the instruction provided: please, re-edit it accordingly. All Figures, Schemes and Tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their number of appearance (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, Table 1, etc.).

- Line 129: Table is not fully compliant with the instruction provided: please, re-edit it accordingly. All Figures, Schemes and Tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their number of appearance (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, Table 1, etc.).

- Line 138: "then event occurs"? Please rewrite or remove.

CONCLUSIONS:

- Conclusions are missing.

- Conclusions needs more elaboration about pros and cons and the possible/future scenarios.

Author Response

Please, see the attached document. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have properly addressed all my comments and suggestions.

I would like to thank them for the detailed point-by-point reply.

Reviewer 3 Report

I would like to thank the authors for their efforts to improve their manuscript. 

The authors have addressed all my comments and suggestions properly.