Composting fish waste good alternative for fish farmers – Fishupdate.com

Composting fish waste good alternative for fish farmers Published:  21 March, 2005

COMPOSTING fish waste provides cost-effective alternative to rendering

or incineration for fish farmers

An innovative composting system that has been proven to meet the

requirements of the new EU Animal By-Product legislation could provide a

four-fold saving in waste disposal costs for fish farmers.

The first fish waste in-vessel Vertical Composting Unit (VCU) in the

Northern Hemisphere was successfully installed last year at aquaculture

product producer, Marine Harvest’s County Donegal, Ireland facility,

where it is successfully processing 1,000 tonnes per annum of fish

processing waste on site at a fraction of the cost it would take to

transport waste for rendering or incineration.

The VCU and its potential as a solution to the new EU Animal By-Product

(ABP) legislation will be discussed by UK distributor OrrTec Technical

Director, Matt Pumfrey, at the Aquaculture Today 2005 Conference being

held at the Edinburgh Marriott Hotel from 13th to 14th April.

Speaking in advance of the conference, Matt Pumfrey said: “The Animal

By-Product regulations have had a major impact on the fish industry. It

now restricts the disposal options for the three categories of waste

coming from any fish site, be it a farm or processor. The main impact is

that the disposal costs have risen dramatically after various disposal

routes, such as landfill, have been closed.

“If a number of fish farmers worked together and produced, say, 10,000

tonnes of waste per annum in total, the economies of scale would

significantly reduce the cost of processing the waste.

“To run a VCU system of that size, including opex and capex you would be

looking at a cost of between £25 to £30 per tonne. Many farmers are

paying £100+ per tonne of waste at present, which includes

transportation as well as rendering or incineration costs, so there are

significant savings to be made composting fish waste.”

Aquaculture Today is the only UK-based aquaculture conference covering

all aquaculture sectors; salmonids, shellfish, marine fin-fish and other

species. The conference will explore a number of key issues affecting

aquaculture businesses including the regulatory environment for

aquaculture, environmental responsibilities, aquatic animal health and

aquaculture markets.

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