News
LIFE Awards 2019 – Environment: LIFE BIOCOPACPlus
Every year, LIFE programme selects the best projects (concluded) for four categories (Environment, Nature, Climate Action, Citizen's Prize) and awards them at LIFE Awards Ceremony, held during the EU Green Week. The LIFE Awards recognise the most innovative, inspirational and effective LIFE projects. If applied widely, they can have a highly positive impact on the environment, boosting economic growth and providing significant benefits for European citizens.
The 15 finalists included:
– Environment projects from Italy, Spain and United Kingdom
– Nature projects from Bulgaria, Italy, Poland and Slovakia
– Climate action projects from Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus and Poland.
The projects were chosen for their contribution to environmental, economic and social improvements, paying special attention to their innovation, replicability, relevance to policy and cost effectiveness.
LIFE Project BIOCOPAC Plus (Italy) was one of the finalists in the Environment category, and was also among nine projects which have been shortlisted for the “Citizen’s Award” by a panel of National Contact Points.
“It was a great honour for SSICA and the other partners, explains D.ssa Angela Montanari, coordinator of BIOCOPAC project. The results of the project were very good; some pack tests with tomato products, legumes and meat are in progress. We are still working in order to optimize the bio-lacquer formulation, thanks to another European project, Agrimax.”
BIOCOPAC Plus: Most tinned food comes in cans coated with oil-based lacquers, such as epoxy resin. The LIFE BIOCOPAC Plus project replaced this with a bio-lacquer made from cutin, a water-repellent substance found in waste tomato skins. The project manufactured 3 000 cutin-coated cans using standard techniques at a farm in Italy. These matched the functional and hygienic properties of cans on the market, while saving 730 mg of CO2 equivalent emissions per can. As well as tackling climate change, the project's success could give tomato growers a new source of income and create rural jobs by turning waste into a resource.
Some complementary data
Video available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Hy_K7QY9o
Learn more about this project:
www.biocopacplus.eu
Read more about LIFE programme:
ec.europa.eu/easme/life
