OUTLOOK As it stands, the circular economy thus offers a range of reasonably varied strategies. Applying the circular economy is a way to extend the life of our natural resources. Nevertheless, projects outside Switzerland show that by combining the principles of the circular economy with those of the bioeconomy, it is possible to take the sustainable re-use of by-products of the food production industry further. Creating more added value through optimal re-use of by-products Making better use of by-products is the same thing as making cascading use of resources, which involves using the same organic ‘waste’ as a secondary material, and then to generate energy, and then as a soil conditioner. GRAP'SUD, a French union of cooperative distilleries which specialises in the production and sale of grape-derived products, processes large volumes of grapes to extract most of their value (cascading use): 1. Recycling of the grape pomace recovered after pressing. 2. Extraction of polyphenols from the pomace for reuse in various applications: cosmetics, food additives, animal feed. 3. Re-use of the remaining material to generate energy and as soil conditioner. The grapes are thus re-used optimally both from an economic and an environmental point of view (providing the nutrient cycles are taken into account and the constituents are extracted sustainably). The European research project No Agro Waste is researching alternatives to fossil plastics. One of its potential solutions is to extract components of unavoidable waste from different food production sectors and use them to make biosourced, biodegradable plastics. Applications targeted in the medium term include the mulch films used in agriculture. The vast majority of the plastic films currently in use are non-biodegradable and are an end-of-life management headache for market gardening companies.
The bioeconomy The bioeconomy is the name given to all economic activities based directly on the moderate use of biological resources. One principle of the bioeconomy is to maximise the use of renewable bioresources while taking into account the limits of agroecosystems. What this means in practice is applying circular organisation to agricultural production (re-using co-products, recycling waste and optimising energy flows).
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