According to the relevant legislation, namely Article 1(1)(b) of Legislative Decree No. 116 of Sept. 3, 2020, Vegetable By-Product (V.O.P.) is “any plant material that is not intended for human consumption, but can be used for a variety of purposes, including animal feed, energy production, fertilizer production, bioplastics production, and the production of building materials.”
VOCs can be produced in a number of sectors, including agriculture, the food industry, the beverage industry and the wood industry, and can be used for a variety of purposes.
According to the relevant legislation, namely Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No. 1069/2009, a Food By-Product (SOA) is “a whole body or part of an animal, a product of animal origin or another product obtained from an animal not intended for human consumption, including ova, embryos and semen.”
The purpose of this decree is to ensure food safety and public health, as well as to protect the environment. It also establishes a set of requirements for the production, processing, transportation and disposal of ABPs.
An ex-food product is a product created for human consumption, which, for various reasons, such as expiration, the presence of aesthetic defects, or simply because it has gone unsold, can no longer be used for its original purpose.
However, this food-product can be used for other purposes, such as as feed, thus to animal feed, or for energy production within biogas plants, so as to avoid its waste.
Community environmental policy instrument through which a periodic assessment of the level of compatibility between production activity and environmental protection is carried out.
Eco-auditing aims at a systematic evaluation of a company’s environmental policies and their effective implementation, carried out with the help of employees.
It is a bill that establishes the obligation of electronic device manufacturers to comply with design and assembly criteria that are easy to repair even by the user himself and to distribute spare parts and repair instruction.
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A By-product is a processing waste resulting from industrial processes, which is reused in another production process as a virgin raw material, but does not undergo any processing and recovery.
By-products, therefore, are those residues that do not fall within the management of company waste, in fact they can be used as raw material in a production chain also different from that from which the by-product was originated.
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An Industrial Waste is a waste resulting from industrial production processes.
These wastes require their own management and disposal process, due to their dangerousness, difficulties in disposal or potential negative environmental impact.
There are two major distinctions between Industrial Waste: hazardous and non-hazardous and comparable and not comparable.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that refers to the responsibility that companies have towards the company in which they operate.
CSR is an integrated, non-compulsory approach to business management that takes into account social, environmental and governance issues and aims to create value for the company and for society as a whole.
CSR implies that companies should not only pursue the goal of maximising profit, but also act ethically, sustainably and responsibly towards society and the environment in which they operate.
Extended Producer Responsibility is a legal principle that requires manufacturers of goods to take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products, including final disposal.
In other words, manufacturers are required to manage their product even after it has been sold to the consumer.
REP encourages manufacturers to design products that can be safely and sustainably disposed of and implement waste management programs.
This implies that manufacturers must develop strategies for the recovery, recycling and management of their products at the end of their life cycle.
WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) is a particular category of waste deriving from EEE (Electrical and Electronic Equipment) products, which have reached the end of their useful life and are therefore intended for collection and recycling.
They are therefore quite complex at a structural level, which have a particular purpose, process and disposal cost compared to other waste.
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The AFNOR XP X30-901 standard is the French standard published in 2018 by the AFNOR standardization body and is the only international reference for the implementation of a management system for the circular economy of an organization.
It was created to be an international reference point for all companies that want to adopt circular solutions within their value chain, production systems or service delivery.
It also allows organizations to provide a methodology for managing and reporting on one or more projects for the transition to circular economy models.
EEE (Electrical and Electronic Equipment) are objects composed of electrical and metallic elements that, for a correct functioning, need electric currents or electromagnetic fields, such as PCs, smartphones or washing machines.
Waste from these objects is called WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment).
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Neomaterials are innovative materials derived from production processes that follow the principles of the Circular Economy.
There are 3 broad categories of neomaterials:
The Second Raw Material is a production waste, which, through specific recovery processes, is used in a production process equal to or different from the one that generated it.
In this context, Italy refers to the category called by-product.
The second raw material plays a crucial role in the Circular Economy, as it allows to reduce the dependence on virgin raw materials, allowing to reduce the environmental impact associated with the extraction of new raw materials and the production of products from scratch.
Through the recycling of existing materials, the second raw material allows to create a longer life cycle for products and to reduce the amount of waste destined for landfills.
The Green Deal is a comprehensive plan proposed by the European Union (EU) to tackle climate change and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
The main goal of the Green Deal is to transform the EU’s economy to a sustainable, low-carbon, and circular economy that will benefit both the environment and society.
The Green Deal focuses on several key areas, including:
The Green Deal is a significant and ambitious initiative that requires a collective effort from all EU Member States, businesses, and citizens to achieve its goals.
The end of life of a product refers to the phase in which a product has reached the end of its useful life and is disposed of or recycled.
In Linear Cycle systems, this moment coincides with the disposal of the product itself, while in the Circular Economy, waste is not seen as waste, but as a new input that re-enters the economic-productive circle, creating a closed system, where the scrap is the secondary raw material.
To improve end-of-life product management, many countries have introduced laws and regulations that require companies to manage their products sustainably.
This includes extended producer responsibility (EPR), which requires manufacturers to take responsibility for the management of their end-of-life products, including the collection, recycling and appropriate disposal of products.
In addition, the circular economy encourages the adoption of business models based on the provision of services rather than the sale of products.
In this way, the company takes charge of product management at the end of life, promoting repair, reuse or recycling, and can create new job opportunities and innovation.
In order to find the most environmentally friendly design solution, product or service throughout its life cycle, taking into account the profitability of the market, minimum environmental criteria (CAM) are environmental requirements established for the various stages of the purchase process.
By decree of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, CAMs are defined as a component of the Plan for the Environmental Sustainability of Consumption in the Public Administration Sector.
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Glossary