Reuse of processing waste

This is a project on which we have invested a lot of resources: the result is that today the processing of olives produces no cutting waste and all byproducts are reprocessed to produce reusable materials.

Nothing is wasted!

In our mill enter the olives and come out extra virgin olive oil, pomice to feed the cattle, peanut to heat homes and businesses, clean water for washing and a concentrate of polyphenols for different uses.

Specifically, the pomace, the solid waste separated from the decanter, made up of small pieces of stone and part of the vegetable pulp and skin of the olive, is pitted and separated by a screen from the residues and used as cattle feed. We have the veterinary clearance to use the pomace, residue-free of pits and fresh, mixed with other feeds for cattle nutrition. The use of the pomace improves both the milk and meat, as it’s rich in antioxidants (polyphenols). 

Even the pits, separated from the pomace, is reused: has an important caloric power, for the presence of oil, and mixed with the pellets is good use for heating, civil or industrial. The separation of the pits is common in the mills, although probably no other reuses the residue for food.

On the contrary, the treatment of vegetation water is not common at all. It is a by-product that normally was dispersed over farmland, but now we can re-use it, thanks to a pilot project funded by the European Community. The vegetation water undergoes several stages of filtration, which allow to obtain a roughly 80 % clean water, which is reused in the production processes (washes), a 5 % of residual slime, which will be added to the pomace, and a 15 % of polyphenols concentrate, which is being evaluated for possible uses, from food to cosmetics, from foliar fertilizer to deterrent to the oil fly, and that is attracting a lot of interest for its content.