project - EIP-AGRI Operational Group
Sustainable food Packaging from AgriCultural residues: from nature to nature – AgriCo.Pack
Context
World plastic production reached 360 million tons in 2017. Of these, 62 million were produced in Europe, of which 40% went to the packaging sector. The current way of producing, using and disposing of plastic cannot benefit of a more "circular" approach, to the detriment of the environment. Reducing the use and consumption of this material, especially of disposable plastic products, is the first objective of the European Commission's environmental policy. With the adoption in 2018 of the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy, the Commission lays the foundations for a new economy, in which the design and production of plastics and its derivatives take place in a sustainable way, responding to the need for reduction, recovery, reuse and recycling, concepts underlying the waste hierarchy, the circular economy and the beating heart of the European Green Deal. In accordance with the requirements of prevention in the production of waste, reuse, recovery and recycling of packaging, imposed by Directive 94/62 / EC and taken up by the most recent Directive 852/2018 / EC, the result of the project will be an innovative compostable packaging starting from sustainable biopolymers and agricultural production waste instead of materials derived from non-renewable sources.
Objectives
The objective of the Plan is to improve the competitiveness of farms by promoting their integration into the agri-food chain thanks to the eco-design and the realization of a sustainable and innovative food packaging for fresh products. This packaging will be obtained from compostable bio-based polymeric material with the addition, during the manufactoring process, of a significant percentage of agricultural waste as filler, in order to obtain a new bio-composite. The project will enhance the waste derived from organic agricultural productions, that is per se characterized by an high added value.
Activities
The project will carry out:
- a composite material, entirley defined in its chemical, morphological, thermal and mechanical properties, and obtained by mixing a commercial biopolymer with agricultural production waste;
- a food packaging for fresh products obtained starting from the developed composite material and its full characterization;
- a study of the environmental sustainability of the packaging and its production processes, through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis;
- a product and packaging traceability system;
- dissemination and training activities toward farms of the Emilia Romagna Region.
Project details
- Main funding source
- Rural development 2014-2020 for Operational Groups
- Rural Development Programme
- 2014IT06RDRP003 Italy - Rural Development Programme (Regional) - Emilia-Romagna
Location
- Main geographical location
- Parma
- Other geographical location
- Bologna, Piacenza
EUR 241794.12
Total budget
Total contributions from EAFRD, national co-financing, additional national financing and other financing.
Project keyword
Resources
Links
2 Practice Abstracts
The innovative packaging consisting of a compostable polymer matrix with agricultural waste was compared with polymeric materials derived from fossil sources. In Work Package 4, the analysis of the environmental sustainability of the developed innovative packaging was carried out by conducting a life cycle study. The calculation of impacts was carried out using the EPD (2018) methods, used for Environmental Product Declarations, and the IPCC 2021 method. The impact of experimental trays in an "optimal production environment" (i.e. using solar energy) was also analyzed. Life cycle analysis was carried out by Cipack - University of Parma with the collaboration of data collection partners. The packaging with the lowest impact is the one that, starting from PLA, maximizes the hay content (20%) and is produced with energy-optimized processes. To achieve it, however, it will be necessary to optimize the production phase.
Work Package 5 involved an analysis of the innovative packaging production chain to arrive at an estimate of the quantities of trays and agricultural waste needed when fully operational. In Action 5, the product registry system under development at EcorNaturaSì was adapted to innovative packaging.
Work Package 1 involved activities aimed at laboratory-scale development of compostable composite materials from commercial biopolymers and different percentages of agricultural wastes, the biomass wastes of hay, potato peels, and prunings. All composite materials made were characterized at Dicam - University of Bologna laboratories to select the best compositions and most promising plant wastes for a scale-up of material production. Specifically, bio-polymer matrices polylactic acid (PLA) and a blend consisting of 60% PLA and 40% polybutylene-adipate-terephthalate (PBAT) and ground hay biomass were selected.
Work Package 2 involved the production of the composites selected in Action 1 in the quantities needed to conduct compounding, filming, and thermoforming trials on a pilot scale to arrive at prototype trays to be characterized in Action 3. Farms recovered and provided waste useful for conducting the larger-scale trials. Agricultural wastes were finely ground and dried before their use in compounding. PLA-based trays and PLA + PBAT blends were produced in different ratios with hay waste percentages of 10, 15 and 20 percent.
In Work Package 3 the characteristics of the innovative packaging developed in the previous actions were analyzed by conducting various laboratory tests at the University of Parma: compressive strength; tensile strength; measurement of material thickness etc.The trays containing PLA with 10 percent hay had better characteristics.
Contacts
Project coordinator
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Open Fields
Project coordinator
Project partners
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Alma Mater Studiorum - Università Di Bologna
Project partner
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Biologica Ortigiani
Project partner
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Centoform
Project partner
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EcorNaturaSì
Project partner
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Società Agricola Brugnoli F.lli
Project partner
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Università degli Studi di Parma
Project partner