OUTLOOK

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).

Spotlight on …

SCHWEIZER ZUCKER

Schweizer Zucker is a Swiss publicly traded company founded in 1912 (the parent company of Ricoter). Its core business is sugar beet processing and re-processing the sugar beet pulp into animal feed. The soil remaining on the beets after harvesting is also re-used by Ricoter. In Switzerland, there are around 4,500 farmers growing nearly 18,000 ha of sugar beet. One hectare contains up to 90,000 plants and produces between 10,000 and 15,000 kg of sugar, enough to supply 400 consumers. Areas under sugar beet cultivation stretch from Lake Geneva to the Jura and up the Rhine Valley, via the Swiss Plateau and Central Switzerland. Sugar beet cultivation is an integral part of healthy crop rotation, contributing to soil regeneration.

Spotlight on …

RICOTER

Ricoter is a Swiss publicly traded company headquartered in Bern. Established in 1981, Ricoter is a subsidiary of Schweizer Zucker and the pioneer of Swiss-made compost (produced at its plants in Frauenfeld and Aarberg). The way it operates is a good illustration of the principle of nutrient cycle completion: the company produces compost out of organic waste generated by farms, the forestry industry, horticulture and the Swiss food industry. It makes garden and potting compost for retail to consumers. Ricoter also produces a peat-free compost which does not rely on the exploitation of these natural ecosystems that form carbon sinks. (The company also makes a compost with a low peat content.) In addition, Ricoter uses Jura limestone to produce lime, which can then be used on farms to improve soil aeration and permeability.