engleski

Demands for waste management in Croatian seafood processing industry

The lack of proper waste management is the biggest problem in Croatian environmental sector ; therefore specific improvements of existing regulations are needed. The seafood processing industry is one of the most important industrial sectors in Croatia, with the increasing number of plants and the amount of both solid waste and wastewaters over the years. Without the proper legislation, this industry is facing the lack of organized disposal sites for solid waste and adverse regulations without specified emission limits and recipients for wastewaters. Dry salting, freezing, canning and marination are main processes in Croatian seafood industry. Processing plants are situated on islands, in coastal and hinterland regions including sensitive water protected areas, with different ways of solid waste disposal and wastewater discharges. During fish processing heavy loads of waste mixtures including fish heads, guts, scales, blood, fats and oils are produced. Waste quality is highly dependent upon the type of fish being processed. Most of the water consumed during fish processing ultimately becomes effluent containing high concentration of chlorides and organic loads. Without alternative solutions most of the generated wastes are discharged into coastal waters and present a potential hazard to the receiving environment. In order to determine the magnitude of waste from processing plants and the impact on the environment, the improvement of monitoring programs and existing regulations on waste management is obligatory. Results of our research from fish processing plants showed high concentrations of chlorides in wastewaters which affected the concentrations and determination methods for biological and chemical oxygen demand ; therefore the verification of the accuracy of the measurement systems was questionable. The discharge effluent limits are based on the characteristics of receiving body and the effluent conditions. The existing wastewater treatment systems are not designed to reduce high chloride concentrations, thus discharge of these wastewaters in collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants is not possible. Reliable estimate on waste loadings is needed in order to implement waste management and cleaner production systems. The focus should be on microzonation and plant-specific studies regarding specific emission limits and possible solutions. For these reasons long-term sustainable solutions, primarily based on clean production principles, recycling and reuse of wastes, are necessary. The improvements in processing technologies, cleaning procedures and waste treatment systems are needed in order to reduce chlorides and other pollutants and enable reuse of water in fish processing plants, reducing in this way consumption of water and economical expenses. An important waste reduction strategy is the usage of undervalued fish parts and by-products for remarketing and additional use in other industries.

Waste management; Seafood processing industry

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