Agrocycle, a UCD-led project<\/a> bringing together researchers from eight EU countries as well as China and Hong Kong.<\/p>\nA bioplastic with a coating made from potato pulp to improve shelf life of food products was another prototype, developed by an Agrocycle team in the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will meet the consumer demand for green packaging and reduce plastic pollution by providing a sustainable and functional alternative to fossil fuel-based plastics,\u201d said researcher Andreas Stabler.<\/p>\n
Waste materials
\nThe aim of the project, according to Tom Curran, project co-ordinator at UCD, is to provide farmers and food processors with more valuable options for waste materials while reducing both food waste to landfill and plastic pollution.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarmers currently give away agricultural waste or get a small price for it. For example, they can only sell rice bran for animal feed but we are showing how there are more valuable human food alternatives for it,\u201d said Prof Curran.<\/p>\n
As well as developing biodegradable packaging and new human foods, the Agrocycle project has discovered ways of diverting food from landfills.<\/p>\n
For example, researchers found that residues from growing mushrooms were a nutritional feedstuff for pigs. \u201cAbout 10 per cent of mushrooms harvested in tunnels go to waste because they are the wrong size or shape but our researchers found mushrooms are a good way of getting vitamin D into pigmeat,\u201d said Prof Curran.<\/p>\n
A website, www.agrocycle.eu, which allows farmers and food producers to connect and sell their waste to biogas energy producers and start-up companies developing new products, was also launched at the event at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine research site in Celbridge, Co Kildare on Friday.<\/p>\n
The website will enable farmers to sell their agricultural waste to start-up food and packaging companies as well as to bio-digesters which turn agricultural and food waste into biogas which is then used to supply electricity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current EU target is that 20 per cent of gas will be supplied by biodigesters in Ireland by 2030,\u201d said Agrocycle researcher Ciara Beausang.<\/p>\n
Up to 20 per cent of fruit and vegetables produced by farmers was wasted and sending this material to a biodigester \u201cwould give them a higher value for their waste\u201d.<\/p>\n
Food companies making potato crisps, cheeses and readymade meals have also shown interest in sending their food waste to biodigesters for conversion to biogas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Edible drinking straws and cups made from potato pulp could replace single-use plastic items, according to researchers making new products from agricultural and food waste. \u201cThe idea of drinking straws that people can eat \u2013 with flavours and colours added \u2013 is something hotels, restaurants and canteens will be interested in,\u201d said Shane Ward, professor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5847,15445,12388],"supplier":[538],"class_list":["post-62181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioplastics","tag-dishware","tag-tableware","supplier-university-college-dublin-ucd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62181"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=62181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}