Bioeconomy value indicators in Sicily

The emergence of the bioeconomy and the concept of sustainability in production processes have been essential for the protection of the environment and biodiversity, as well as for the implementation of processes for energy recovery, the creation of new jobs and increased competitiveness. Bioeconomy includes all sectors of the economy that use biological renewable resources of land and sea (such as crops, forests, fish, animals and micro- organisms, as well as biological residues and waste) to produce goods and services in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable strategy. The objective of this paper is to quantify the performance of bioeconomy and sustainability of the agri-food chain in Sicily through the analysis of the main business, innovation and bioeconomy start-ups connected to Circular Economy, the overall waste treatment plants that permit material recovery; and the number of biological surfaces.