The RISORSA project (RE-using ORganic Waste: towards Sustainable Agriculture), financed by the European Regional Development Fund POR Campania FESR 2014-2020, has as its objective the creation of a device/container, up to now present on the market as a polystyrene product (polymer synthetic obtained from fossil fuels), but made of materials of vegetable origin, waste and easily biodegradable.
The RISORSA project is proposed by the TerrAmore Cooperative Society and sees Eng4Life as a consultant, together with the Department of Industrial Engineering of the Università degli Studi di Salerno.
THE OBJECTIVES
The RISORSA project, if implemented, will have a major impact on reducing the consumption of energy resources (the costs of extracting fossil fuels, polymer synthesis and processing them), and at the same time it will allow for the reduction of waste from agri-food activities (greenery clippings and even the compost itself, which in many cases becomes waste because it is produced in quantities that cannot be absorbed by agricultural needs). Furthermore, the impact that the project will have on the release of waste into the environment is not negligible because, although the used polystyrene seed trays are not placed directly into the ground (with an expensive request for man-hours for transferring the seedlings), in in any case, a non-negligible fraction of them, due to breakage and erosion phenomena, ends up in agricultural soils (fragments of plastic but also microplastics which are then washed away during irrigation and can reach the groundwater).
The project is fully developed within the technological-productive domain “Biotechnologies, Human Health, Agri-food” of RIS3 Campania. In particular, in the field of intervention “Packaging, bioremediation of the territory and efficient management of resources for the agro-industry” two technological trajectories can be identified in which the project has the main effects: both the development of new packaging materials, and therefore “Innovative less invasive, protective and reusable packaging materials (BA06)”; and the valorisation of production waste and therefore “Development of technologies and processes for the valorisation of production waste (BA08)”.
It is evident how the creation of a device/container, up to now present on the market as a product in polystyrene (synthetic polymer obtained from fossil fuels), but made of materials of vegetable origin, waste and easily biodegradable, constitutes the practical realization of the BA06 trajectory ” less invasive innovative materials”, given that a) it allows for an economy of fossil fuels; b) allows the disposal of waste material; c) avoids introducing potentially harmful materials into the environment. At the same time the objectives of the BA08 trajectory “utilization of production waste” are completely satisfied by the reuse of materials that constitute production waste (vegetation cuttings but also the compost itself).
Overall cost of the project: 570.175,00 €
Financial contribution: 328.667,50 €
Eng4Life in the RISORSA project is one of the consultants
On 8 June at 18 there will be the dissemination event of the results of the RISORSA project.
RISORSA loncandina evento 03-compresso