The kick-off meeting of the Usable Packaging project was held in Valencia, Spain, on 12 and 13 June 2019 at the premises of the IATA – Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de alimentos, a research center focused on food science, technology and biotechnology that coordinates the project. The consortium gathers 25 institutions from eleven countries, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Poland, United Kingdom and Croatia. The project started on 1 June 2019 and ends on 31 May 2022. The objective of the meeting was to bring together all beneficiaries and provide a better insight into their project roles.
The project is expected to develop high performance plastic packaging through a sustainable and fully circular value chain, where the biomass raw material sourcing derives from food processing side streams. The aim is to obtain, using low footprint biochemical processing, a portfolio of bio-based biodegradable building block materials enabling the realization of complex packaging structures, including laminates and multilayer films. The aforementioned materials would match key functional requirements of commercial petrochemical plastics, such as gas/liquid barrier properties, mechanical resistance, resistance to cold temperatures etc.
In addition, participants discussed methodology and sources of raw materials necessary for the implementation of the project activities and the ways in which the final product would meet the needs of targeted end-users. Furthermore, a representative of the European Commission, Mr. Mallorquin, presented JTI BBI rules and guidelines for a successful project management.
Filip presented Bio-mi at the meeting:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 836884.This publication reflects only the author’s view and that the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.