PLASTICS AND ENVIRONMENT
Spanish AP-Waste project to study agricultural plastics biodegraded by insects
Spanish project AP-Waste (www.ap-waste.es) will study the valorisation of up to five types of agricultural plastics as it seeks to become an international benchmark in treating and recovering end-of-life plastics. Its goal is to increase the collection and management of agri-plastics by 50% until 2025.
 The “AP-Waste” project will analyse the use of insects to degrade agri-plastics (Photo: AP-Waste) |
In April 2020, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) gave the go-ahead to the project, which aims to reduce the presence of plastics waste in agriculture by using insects to degrade the material. The insects convert the plastics waste into chitin, which can be used to make bioplastics, as well as biofertilisers and other products for use in non-food applications, for example nutrient recovery, metal recovery and bioremediation of contaminated soils, among others.
Researchers will analyse more than 1,500 samples across six laboratories and insect breeding farms. It is the largest study in the world to date for the bio-valorisation of end-of-life plastics, AP-Waste said.
The process will start with the collection of plastics waste used across different types of crops. Next, various types of pre-treatments will be performed, both physical and chemical, to accelerate biodegradation prior to the insects’ actions.
AP-Waste said the project has several bio-economic benefits. These include the removal and recovery of more than 220,000 t/y of plastics accumulated in productive soil, the potential reduction of more than 1,000 t/y of CO2 emissions in agriculture, the generation of wealth in rural environments of more than EUR 200m annually and the creation of more than 22,000 jobs in rural areas.
Funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (Eafrd) and MAPA, AP-Waste was created by a consortium that comprises the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja, Madrid / Spain; www.asaja.com), Spanish NGO Sigfito (Madrid; www.sigfito.es), energy and petrochemicals group Repsol (Madrid; www.repsol.com), the Spanish National Research Council (Cebas-Csic, Murcia; www.cebas.csic.es), Spain’s packaging, transport and logistics centre Itene (Valencia; www.itene.com) and Miguel Hernández University (Elche / Spain; www.umh.es).
Researchers will analyse more than 1,500 samples across six laboratories and insect breeding farms. It is the largest study in the world to date for the bio-valorisation of end-of-life plastics, AP-Waste said.
The process will start with the collection of plastics waste used across different types of crops. Next, various types of pre-treatments will be performed, both physical and chemical, to accelerate biodegradation prior to the insects’ actions.
AP-Waste said the project has several bio-economic benefits. These include the removal and recovery of more than 220,000 t/y of plastics accumulated in productive soil, the potential reduction of more than 1,000 t/y of CO2 emissions in agriculture, the generation of wealth in rural environments of more than EUR 200m annually and the creation of more than 22,000 jobs in rural areas.
Funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (Eafrd) and MAPA, AP-Waste was created by a consortium that comprises the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja, Madrid / Spain; www.asaja.com), Spanish NGO Sigfito (Madrid; www.sigfito.es), energy and petrochemicals group Repsol (Madrid; www.repsol.com), the Spanish National Research Council (Cebas-Csic, Murcia; www.cebas.csic.es), Spain’s packaging, transport and logistics centre Itene (Valencia; www.itene.com) and Miguel Hernández University (Elche / Spain; www.umh.es).
10.08.2020 Plasteurope.com [245633-0]
Published on 10.08.2020