Issue 02/2017

From Science and Research
Give waste
a chance
Shrink film and packaging nets
for agricultural products from
vegetable waste
By:
Chelo Escrig Rondán
Head of Extrusion Department
AIMPLAS (Plastics Technology Centre)
Paterna, Spain
The autonomous Spanish region of Andalusia currently
boasts an annual production of some 7.5 million
tonnes of vegetables and 2 million tonnes of fruit,
making it Spain’s most important region for the export of
tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and, in particular, cucumbers.
A recent study from Andalusia’s department of Agriculture,
Fishing and Environment conducted by IFAPA (Institute
for Research and Training in Agriculture and Fisheries)
revealed that overall marketing losses of between 2-10 %
occur during handling of the produce, which translates into
approximately 500,000 tonnes of horticultural by-products,
which often simply end up in landfill.
To address this issue, the BIOVEGE project was
established. Its aim was to valorize the vegetable waste
generated during the handling, transport and delivery of
fruit and vegetables, with as goal to develop sub-products
suitable for food and packaging applications such as:
• Plasticizers for modifying PLA, to enable the
development of extruded shrink film and packaging nets;
• Natural preservatives suitable for use in a broad range
of foodstuffs;
• Bioactive, hydrophilic and lipophilic ingredients that can
be extracted and emulsions to incorporate these in food
matrices of all types, regardless of their nature.
The production of biomaterials and food ingredients from
these waste products will provide them with real added
value. The following diagram shows the two work lines
proposed for the BIOVEGE project:
vegetable
waste
extraction of
ingredients
food
preservatives
final use
food preservatives in food models
bioactive ingredients for olive oil
of bioactive
compounds
bioactive
ingredients
packaging
bionet
hydrolization
from vegetable
waste fiber to
obtain hydrocarbons
alcohol
production
polymer
modification
reactive
extrusion
process
Project development
shrink
film
40 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/17] Vol. 12