Sustainable food packaging from agro waste: from Nature for Nature

World plastic production reached 368 million tons in 2019 and about 40% of them is used for the packaging sector. Recently, the problems related to the depletion of oil, from which the 98% of plastics derives, and to the plastic pollution, mainly due to not biodegradable materials, have driven research, industrial and end-user interests towards sustainable plastic products, derived from biomass and responding to the principles of recovery, reuse and recycling. In particular, the creation of a new packaging for the food sector, especially if intended for the packaging of organic food products, cannot ignore the logic of a sustainable development, as also requested by consumers who are increasingly attentive to concepts such as waste reduction, circularity of materials, food safety. In this perspective, the research activity of the AgriCo.Pack project, funded by the Emilia Romagna Region, concerns the development of a packaging material for fresh fruit and vegetables, that is biobased and biodegradable / compostable and characterized by good performances. In particular, the new packaging is obtained by using a bio-based biodegradable polymer as the matrix and a high amount of fillers derived by agricultural production waste. The fillers are chosen according to their seasonality and availability and properly pre-treated, in order to improve their affinity with the polymeric matrix. The objective of the work is to produce polymeric bio-composites that can replace, in terms of performances and costs, materials derived from non-renewable and non-biodegradable sources. The project covers the full value chain, starting from agricultural companies, for the supply of vegetable waste, to research centers and companies interested in the development of the new packaging, designed also according to LCA analysis, to final end-users that will use a traceability system of the product.