Value addition and circular economy
Value addition and circular economy approaches play a critical role in strengthening the resilience and sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture systems.
Value addition enhances the economic, nutritional, and market value of fish and aquatic products through improved processing, preservation, packaging, and product diversification, generating income and employment, particularly for women and small-scale actors. Circular economy model promotes the efficient use of resources by minimizing waste and turning by-products, such as trimmings, offal, and shells, into valuable outputs, including fishmeal, fertilizers, animal feed, bioactive compounds, and energy. Together, value addition and circular economy practices help reduce food loss and waste, lower environmental impacts, and improve profitability and sustainability across aquatic food value chains.
Aquatic food products offer several opportunities for value addition, as processing can result in up to 70 percent of by-products, such as viscera, heads, belly flaps, and backbones. Rather than being wasted, these by-products can be transformed into high-value products.
Markets for aquatic food by-products and waste are increasingly becoming larger as the demand for these products grows, and as new technology emerges to better utilize fish waste and by-products. This demand not only helps to reduce waste but also creates jobs as the markets expand.
Waste to energy
Energy recovery is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into useable heat, electricity, or fuel through waste-to-energy processes such as combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas recovery. In a non-circular system, waste is often disposed of in the landfill, therefore losing all residual energy. Waste-to-energy processes help to recoup some of this energy, however reusing materials and avoiding landfill is known to save significantly more energy.
