Cultivation of olive trees and olive oil production have been considered as a legacy for the Mediterranean region. This custom represents a very important benefit for many nations in terms of wealth and health. However, huge amounts of by-products and waste are generated during olive oil production. This represents a serious environmental impact on land and water bodies if not properly handled. Olive oil extraction generates two waste streams, a solid waste called pomace and olive mill wastewater (OMWW), which has been considered as highly pollutant and phytotoxic waste. These wastes have high disposal costs and predominantly generated from small-scale enterprises that have limited financial resources to treat them properly before discharge to the environment. Besides being a serious environmental problem, OMWW has potential economic value that remains to be utilized such as: fertilizers, valuable antioxidants agents and fatty acids needed in human diet. Also, Olive pomace is a valuable renewable energy source with an energy density of 23 MJ/kg and has become an inexpensive alternative for fossil fuels. Aiming at adding value to the olive production sectors and potential valorization options for byproducts in the MENA region, international practices applied in olive mills wastes management’s and treatment methods used in major oil producing countries are presented.

中文翻译：

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中东和北非（MENA）地区橄榄工厂副产品的可持续环境管理和评估选项

橄榄树的种植和橄榄油的生产被认为是地中海地区的遗产。对于许多国家而言，这种习俗在财富和健康方面代表着非常重要的利益。但是，橄榄油生产过程中会产生大量副产品和废物。如果处理不当，这将对土地和水体造成严重的环境影响。提取橄榄油会产生两种废物流，一种是称为果渣的固体废物，另一种则是被视为高污染和植物毒性废物的橄榄磨废水（OMWW）。这些废物的处置成本很高，并且主要是由资金有限的小型企业产生的，这些企业在将其排放到环境之前无法对其进行适当的处​​理。除了是一个严重的环境问题，OMWW具有潜在的经济价值，尚待利用，例如：人类饮食中所​​需的肥料，有价值的抗氧化剂和脂肪酸。此外，橄榄渣是一种有价值的可再生能源，能量密度为23 MJ / kg，已成为化石燃料的廉价替代品。为了在中东和北非地区为橄榄生产部门增加价值并为副产品提供潜在的增值选择，本文介绍了在主要的产油国使用的橄榄厂废物管理和处理方法所采用的国际惯例。