1s4: Translating circular economy principles to aquaculture

Abstract

A circular economy (CE) is perceived as a way to reduce the environmental pressure of human activities including (blue)food production. In general, CE and its principles are still underexplored in aquaculture, although its fundamentals (i.e., the reuse, recycling, recovering nutrients, and energy) have already been largely applied. A recent study presented a set of 5 principles applicable to food and non-food systems to guide biomass use towards a circular bioeconomy (Muscat et al., 2021): safeguarding and regenerating the health of our agroecosystems; avoiding non-essential products and the waste of essential ones; prioritizing biomass streams for basic human needs; utilizing and recycling by-products of agroecosystems; and using renewable energy while minimizing overall energy use. Most of the examples provided by the authors were based on terrestrial production systems, i.e., agriculture and livestock.