Circular economy will boost the growth of the European fishing industry

Recovering and reusing fish and fishing material waste to reduce food waste and safeguard marine ecosystems thanks to technological innovation: this is the goal of the European project born in Genoa EcoeFISHent in which Aqua De Mâ, an aquaculture company, will take part which raises sea bream and sea bass off the coast of Lavagna. The project was presented under the guidance of FI.LSE Spa (Ligurian financial institution for economic development) and will last five years. 34 partners from 7 countries, of which 5 EU member states (Italy, Spain, Norway, Bulgaria and France), a country associated with the Horizon 2020 program (Israel) and a non-EU country (Kenya), will experience behaviors and technologies in a Blue Economy logic.

Thanks to EcoeFISHent it will be possible to obtain numerous bioactive substances from the waste deriving from fish processing that can be used in various sectors: functional foods, food supplements, cosmetics, drugs. The residues of these substances will in turn be used for agricultural fertilizers, biodiesel and chitin. As an alternative to the use of plastic material to transport and store fish, the project involves the construction of reusable boxes in Moca (material intended for contact with food), already patented, biodegradable and compostable. Even the nets and fishing lines abandoned at sea will be reused, through the development of a plant model for the recovery and recycling of fishing materials, and transformed into packaging for cosmetic products or safety belts for cars.

The waste material produced by Aqua will be collected by other EcoeFISHent partners for pre-treatment through a particular equipment, located at the company’s headquarters, which performs the separation and recovery; the fishing nets will be collected and sent to a plastic factory for creative recycling and the boxes used for fish packaging will be gradually replaced with compostable and biodegradable eco-boxes.

The full partnership

FILSE, Liguria region (represented by ARPAL), University of Genoa, MICAMO, Project HUB 360, TICASS, Angel Consulting sas by Matteo Zanotti Russo & C (Italy), Aqua Società Agricola srl (Italy), Ardes srl (Italy), Asociacion de Investigacion de Materiales Plasticos y Conexas (Spain), Asociación Nacional de Fabricantes de Conservas de Pescados y Mariscos (Spain), Azienda Multiservizi e d’Igiene Urbana Genova spa (Italy), Bar Ilan University (Israel), Cloud – Consulting and Production IT Integration Ltd (Israel), Coop Italia scrl (Italy), Consorzio per il Centro Interuniversitario di Biologia Marina ed Ecologia Applicata G. Bacci (Italy), Consorzio di Gestione dell’Area Marina Protetta del Promontorio di Portofino (Italy), Consorzio per la Promozione della Cultura Plastica PROPLAST (Italy), Federazione Nazionale Cooperative Della Pesca Associazione (Italy), Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Norway), Generale Conserve spa (Italy), Gomeh Solutions Ltd (Israel), Green evolution – Società Cooperativa (Italy), Industria Cartaria Santo Spirito spa (Italy), Le Pouvoir des Idees (France), Limhealth srl (Italy), Nasekomo AD (Bulgary), Norwegian Institute of Food, Omnia – Consorzio Opportunità Lavorative Consortium Society in the Form of a Social Cooperative Onlus (Italia), Panel of Eminent Development Consultants Ltd (Kenya), Project Sas di Massimo Perucca (Italy), Saes Getters spa (Italy), Syspro Automation slu (Spain), Themis spa (Italy), Wiise srl (Italy), WWF Italy.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 101036428