On December 10 (2019), we celebrated our first BLUENET workshop on “Circular economy in aquaculture: collecting and reusing abandoned or discarded materials to give them a second life”. The workshop was hosted by AZTI and held at the Technology Park Bizkaia (Zamudio, Spain). The event was a success and gathered 23 stakeholders from the aquaculture’s value chain and circular economy.  

The workshop was divided in two parts. The first part consisted of 8 presentations that intended to inspire the participants by showing different initiatives that are being carried out in the aquaculture value chain, in relation to the loss and recovery of materials. The presentations included: 

  1. Oihane C. Basurko (AZTI) provided the overview on BLUENET.
  2. Mari Jose Suarez (GAIKER) talked about how BLUENET is dealing with circular economy under the motto “locally wasted locally recovered”.
  3. Maria Vidal from IEO presented EU-funded project AQUA-LIT (EMFF) as an example of an innovative project on Aquaculture that aims at reducing the marine litter produced by this industry by stakeholder engagement.
  4. Txomin Lasarte (Matxitxako Moluscos), presented the vision of the producer on usual practices in an offshore aquaculture farm and discarding of gears. 
  5. Jon Rementeria (Itsaskorda) provided the view of rope manufacturers and how this industry is willing to adapt to new markets and needs that included the uptake of recycled and new materials.   
  6. Nekane González (ANTEX) presented the work ANTEX is doing in the textile industry on recycled yarns for sustainable textiles. 
  7. Edu Uribesalgo (TERNUA) inspired the participants by showing the journey they’ve taken on designing and manufacturing sustainable high-quality garments for mountaineering and outdoors.  
  8. Iñigo Aizpuru (IHOBE) discussed the role of the administration in the circular economy and showed IHOBE’s strategy on circular economy.  

The second part of the workshop focused on identifying the challenges and solutions to drive aquaculture into a circular economy. 

Thank you all participants and speakers for your inputs and inspiring talks!