On 7 April, Fecoam technicians travelled to the Italian city of Seregno, in Milan, to the meeting of the consortium of the European project EuroPHA, whose main goal is to obtain a bioplastic made from waste from companies and agricultural cooperatives. This new component would be biodegradable and thus more environmentally-friendly than conventional plastics, which need thousands of years to dissolve and come from fossil fuels.
The Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Murcia is coordinating this project, funded through the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union, which has allocated two million Euro for its development. The meeting in Milan focused eminently on the technical side of the implementation of a pilot plant that will transform agricultural waste into the new biomaterial, which, in turn, will have to meet certain standards of thermal stability (quality) and resistance as a barrier against external agents (protection).
The EuroPHA project, with a total of nine partners from seven countries, is currently involved in the submission of technical reports regarding the benefits and possibilities of the product's implementation and of the mechanisms that will allow its production; a process which would be more expensive than that involved in the acquisition and transformation of regular plastic. The main objective is to reduce the cost of this material by 40% (from € 4.5 to € 2.6 per kilo), so that, in addition to being environmentally-friendly, it can also be competitive and attractive to businesses looking for an alternative to traditional plastic packaging. Moreover, the development of the European production of PHA-based plastics would entail the EU's immersion in this market, because, until now, the material's leading producers have been the United States and China.
The next important events for this project will be held in June and July, when a report on the degree of protection that the product offers for packaged food will be presented and promotional activities will be organised.
All these efforts will lead to October this year, when the feasibility of a pilot plant devoted to the transformation of agricultural waste into bioplastics will be tested. It is a first step for the development of a greener European economy, with a greater respect for the environment, better collaboration between countries and a commitment from the European market to the organic sector.
The need to contribute to this change in the production processes is reflected in the latest report from Plastics Europe, which reveals that Spain alone generated about two million tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste (which come from used products) in 2012, which results in about 45 kilos per capita. It is a large volume of non-degradable material that, in the short term, will need to be recycled over and over again (with the use of energy that this process involves) to prevent it from becoming a long-lasting contaminant.
The EuroPHA project, which started in October 2013 and is coordinated by the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of the Region (Fecoam) has proposed the production of containers through the collection and treatment of waste, the accumulation of PHA-producing bacteria, the extraction through natural methods (without organic solvents) and its processing into food packaging (trays and containers and plastic foam).
Fecoam is at the forefront of all efforts made to ensure the success of this project, conducting a number of studies together with its associated agricultural cooperatives that can serve as potential sources of raw material for the production of plastic (mainly fruit puree).
Source: Agencias