Seafood Processing Plant Waste Management
In past years, many seafood processing plants, especially those in coastal areas have
disposed of their effluents in drainage systems or other convenient disposal routes
without properly treating them to remove or reduce solid and organic wastes rich in
nutrients.
Environmental and regulatory agencies are under pressure to come up with
recommendations to establish practices to monitor and treat effluents to minimize the
impact of discharged wastes into the environment. One of the recommendations has been
to recycle wastes, then treat them before they are released. Effluent quality would have
to be measured and quantified to assure it meets industry water quality standards. Most
countries are using standards proposed by the National Environmental Quality Act and
CECC Directive 91-271 BE 2539 (1992).
Waste water from processing is normally loaded with organic and inorganic substances to
include remnants of by products, floating and suspended solids, chemicals, disinfectants
and additives used in processing and often heavy concentrations of nutrients, especially
nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfide and particulate organic carbon which contribute to
eutrophication of the receiving waters.
The objectives of a good waste disposal program for seafood processing plants should be
to treat the solid waste and waste water efficiently to prevent eutrophication of waters
receiving the effluent. .
Principles For Waste Management at Seafood Processing Plants:
 Plants must be properly licensed to dispose of wastes and will be required to
establish a monitoring system that is appropriate for the volume of effluent
and load. The solid waste should be removed before it becomes part of the
effluent and disposed of separately, preferably on land in a contained area.
Monitoring and verification systems should target continuous improvements
for waste reduction. If you cannot quantify and measure waste, you cannot
manage it efficiently.
 Plants should implement Best Management Practices (BMP) to treat wastes
with a goal of meeting or exceeding industry standards for the area or country
involved. BMPs should include: minimizing process water by recycling
when possible which would conserve water used. Solid plant wastes like byproducts of processing should be kept off the floor and removed before they
become part of the effluent discharge. Effluent strength and volume can be
reduced by collecting solids and inorganic wastes in catch basins and by
periodic removal and disposal.
Some of the more suitable primary and secondary treatment systems for effluents and
industrial waste water being discharged at processing plants include:
 Mechanical screening of effluents to remove suspended solids.
 Dissolved air floatation techniques that use fine air bubbles to float and
suspend solids, oil and grease.
 Sedimentation reservoirs or basins to remove solids by gravity settlement or
through use of chemicals to flocculate suspended and colloidal solids.
 Aerobic and anaerobic biological treatments for removing or reducing
biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD)
levels. Waste treatment using trickling filters and the activated sludge process
promote biochemical oxidation of organic matter in waste.
In many countries, the processing plants must also comply with industrial effluent
standards. Some of the more important industry standards for seafood facilities are listed
in Table 1.
Critical effluent components for seafood processing plants include pH values, total
suspended solids, BOD, total ammonia nitrogen, soluble phosphorus, objectionable odor,
and fat, oil and grease levels.
Table 1.
A list of industrial effluent standards values and the recommended method for
examination is shown in the table below:
Effluent Standards
Parameter
Method of
Examination
Status
ACC required
standard
Effluent Standard Value
6.0 - 9.5 initially and 6.0 - 9.0 after 5
years. Industrial standard is 5.5 - 9.0
Total
Dissolved
Solids (TDS)
Industrial
Standard not required
by ACC
* not more than 3,000 mg/l depending on
receiving water or type of industry
Drying/Gravimetric
Analysis
Total
Suspended
Solids (TSS)
ACC required
standard
Initially, not more than 100 mg/l and not
more than 50 mg/l after 5 year. Industry
standard for wastewater treatment not to
exceed 150 mg/l.
Drying/Gravimetric
Analysis
Not more than 40ºC - no more than 3ºC
rise
Thermometer during
sampling
Not more 5.0 mg/l depending on receiving
water or type of industry but not to exceed
15 mg/l
Solvent Extraction by
Weight
pH
Temperature
Fat, Oil and
Grease (FOG)
Industrial
Effluent - not
required by
ACC
Industrial
Effluent
Standard
under
consideration
by ACC
pH meter
Biological
Oxygen
Demand
(BOD)
ACC required
standard
50 or less initially and 30 or less after 5
years. Industrial requirement is no more
than 60 mg/l depending on type of
industry.
Azide Modification at
20ºC for five days
Total Kjedahl
Nitrogen
(TKN)
Industrial
Standard not required
by ACC
Not more than 200 mg/l depending on
receiving waters.
Kjedahl Nitrogen
method
Chemical
Oxygen
Demand
(COD)
Industrial
Standard not required
by ACC
Not more than 400 mg/l depending on
receiving waters
Potassium Dichromate
Digestion
Free Chlorine
Industrial
Standard not required
by ACC
Not more than 1 mg/l
Iodometric method.
ACC required
standard
Currently under evaluation
Flow Injection Analysis
ACC required
standard
Currently under evaluation
Flow Injection Analysis
Soluble
Phosphorus
Total
Ammonia
Nitrogen
(TAN)
Suggestion Regarding Processing plant Effluent sampling at processing plants
Sampling should be done at select points based on the following considerations:




At point of discharge of the raw effluent into the treatment system (lagoons,
oxidation tanks, settling tanks, etc).
At the point the treated effluent leaves the treatment facilities
At the point where the discharge enters the environment (canal, river, estuary,
etc). or at the point the discharge leaves the facility property (especially important
if other facilities are discharging into the canal).
If the effluent is being treated by an industrial park facility or some other
authority is responsible for treating the effluent for your facility, you would need
to show permit and name of responsible party.
How to interpret samples:

The BOD, total suspended solids, pH, total ammonia nitrogen reading must
comply with the BAP standards either under the limits shown. Soluble
phosphorus and dissolved oxygen must be shown but allowances may be made
based on the treatment system and the parameter readings. However it will be on
a case by case consideration depending on the treatment method. In any case, the
total phosphorus readings must be taken and reported along with the volume of
water discharged from the plant over a 24 hour period on the day the reading is
taken.
If the plant has high suspended solids in a lagoon system where the water is treated with
aerators, you may need a settling pond before and after the area where the water is
aerated or a settling basin (can be a serpentine canal) to allow further settling of the
water. Water should always be decanted off of the surface to reduce the mixing of
bottom sediments with the effluents. Sediments from the settling pond may have to be
removed periodically and stored on land in contained area.
