CIRCULAR ASSESSMENT TOOLS: ASSESSING CIRCULARITY IN OLIVE OIL MILLS

Abstract

In the last few years, since the implementation of circular economy (CE) is necessary for the transition to a sustainable food system, academics and practitioners have paid increasing attention to the CE concept. CE evaluations today have not demonstrated satisfactory results to meet the context of CE, as most of the indicators are focused on resource efficiency, waste disposal and recycling rates, or a particular stage of the product or process, ignoring the system perspective. In spite of the research community's extensive work, an effective tool to measure circularity in the agri-food industry has not yet been developed. This study aims to highlight the CE tools, based on scientific literature and practice, so as to identify those that could assess circularity in olive oil mills. Due to the uncontrolled disposal of waste from olive oil mills, the Mediterranean countries that produce the majority of olive oil have to cope with major environmental issues. Therefore, the assessment of circularity in order to identify the transition to CE in this sector is of great importance for these countries.

Keywords

• circular economy in olive oil mills
• circularity assessment
• assessment tools of circular economy in olive oil mills