https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/from-yachts-to-biofuel-how-spanish-farmers-are-embracing-circular-economy/
From yachts to biofuel, how Spanish farmers are embracing circular economy
By Mercedes Salas | EFEAgro
Apr 28, 2020
This article is part of our special report Circular economy in Spanish
agri-food sector.
The concept of the circular economy is gaining popularity among Spanish
farmers, who are finding innovative ways to give new life to waste
products and create an agricultural system based on reusing raw
materials and reducing waste. EURACTIV’s partner EFEAGRO reports.
The initiatives coincide with the EU’s flagship environmental policy,
the Green Deal, which includes a plan for the promotion of a circular
economy, put forward by the EU’s executive in March.
The plan includes the objectives to ensure food production protects the
environment and fights climate change, reflected in the aims of the
post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Almond shells – a valuable by-product
Unió Nuts is a cooperative which transforms and sells dried fruits in
more than 30 countries.
It has also been working hard to figure out the best way to valorise its
by-products, the cooperative’s general director Ferrán Huguet told EFEAGRO.
Specifically, the cooperative has found multiple uses for almond shells,
ranging from pharmaceutical purposes to the production of dyes for
clothes, to biodegradable bags and food wrappers.
They are also able to be used as a building material, and more
specifically as a substitute for teak wood in the construction and
varnish of yacht decks, given that the material obtained after shell
milling has actually be found to be more resistant.
This can then contribute to minimising the number of trees cut for decking.
Thanks to this initiative, in which Unió participates together with
other companies, highlights the value creation of the circular economy,
and the role it can play in optimising harvesting processing while
ensuring that the agricultural sector is environmentally friendly.
The circle of the olive tree fields
In the south of the region of Andalucía, Miguel Ángel del Moral grows
cereals and olive trees.
He also belongs to a cooperative which helps create value for the waste
products from olive oil production.
De Moral said that only 20% of the olive goes for oil, while the
remaining 80% is unusable.
However, this remaining waste product can be used as a form of renewable
energy, which he highlights also eliminates the problem of recycling
this waste.
Both olive stones and the “alperujo” (the material obtained from
spinning the olive while extracting the oil) can be used as biofuel,
either in industry or for heating in homes, which saves electricity or
natural gas.
These by-products are sold to other industries via the cooperative.
According to Del Moral, employment and profitability could be generated
if producers create new lines of business.
However, he stressed that although aid schemes to support such practices
already exist, the challenge is to achieve “more profitability.”
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