What is a By-product?

An incidental or secondary product made in the manufacture or synthesis of something else.

An unintended but inevitable secondary result.

Background information

Byproducts and waste generation are having an impact on environmental, economic, and social sectors. These either can cause harmful effects in the environment or can be seen as an opportunity. By-products are secondary products that usually have market value, and can therefore be processed and sold on. But they always have a lower market value than the main product.

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Current Impacts

What does this mean for businesses?

Revenue can be generated from the sale of this product can be used to meet some expenses of the business or bring down the costing of the main product. This gives a much needed competitive advantage to the business in the market.

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Next Steps

Although byproducts can have positive affects in the market for businesses, it is important to review if the byproducts are actually harming the environment or causing more waste than profit. Byproducts are unexpected results so they may have negative affects.

Learn More!

Take our EcoLearn courses to find out more about the positive and negatives of byproducts and what they mean for your business!

Byproduct

In simple terms, a byproduct is a secondary or incidental product derived during the synthesis or production of something else. It is not the primary product, rather it is a binary product yielded during the creation of the main product.

https://www.cleverism.com/lexicon/byproduct/