The EU funded project ASTRAL aims at developing and providing innovative techniques and species combinations to improve i ntegrated multi-t rophic aquaculture (IMTA) operations . A circularity assessment was carried out to provide evidence-based metrics on how the new aquaculture systems performed in the context of the circular economy. Particularly, for the specific case study in Scotland performing co-culture of seaweeds and bivalves, we identified the major drivers to increase the circularity in infrastructure components.
The study aimed to provide an assessment of circularity at Port-a-Bhuiltin , an experimental low-trophic aquaculture (LTA) site on the west coast of Scotland, in accordance with the following scenarios (Table 1):
The Material Circular Indicator (MCI) was adapted to study low-trophic cultivation, to evaluate virgin feedstock, waste generation, linearity, and utility. To do so, the adaptation to the aquaculture sector of the methodology developed by the Ellen MacArthur foundation
was needed.
LFI decreased for LTA and LTA- improved scenarios by 5.54 and 6.35%, respectively when compared to monoculture (Table 2). T he Utility Factor (X) increased by 8.90% for and 7.14% for LTA and LTA-improved, respectively. The MCI increased by 39.79% for the LTA scenario and 42.02% for the LTA- improved scenario. Even though MCI and X increased whilst LFI decreased, all results were positive since LFI showed better results as it is decreased, while utility and MCI showed an improvement when both indicators were increased.
Bibliography
1. Ellen MacArthur Foundation Circularity Indicators: An Approach to Measuring Circularity. Methodology; Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2019;
Acknowledgments
This work is part of the ASTRAL project, funded by the EU H2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 863034.