With a circular economy vision, the project RASPONS seeks to value these by-products within the wine sector itself, obtaining compostable cardboard-like plastic boxes for wine bottles.
La La Viña Cooperative, as project leader, the Technological Institute of Plastics (AIMPLAS) and the Institute for the Conservation and Improvement of Valencian Agrodiversity (COMAV) of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) They are carrying out this research, which makes it possible to reuse the agricultural by-products generated by winemaking, to improve the competitiveness of the sector itself through the development of sustainable and innovative products.
In the words of the leading researcher in Agriculture and the Aquatic Environment at Aimplas, Cello Escrig, “the valorization of by-products derived from wine arises from the need of the wine industry to find a viable alternative that offers these waste products a second chance. Through RASPONS we give it to them in the form of compostable cardboard-like products, such as boxes and cases, which can be used in the winery itself to introduce the bottles for sale or as merchandising items”.
Furthermore, he continues, “new plastic products must be compostable and maintain the required mechanical properties. At the same time, the raw material cost of traditional cardboard products would be reduced by replacing them with by-products of the wine industry”.
Thus, in the RASPONS project, Wood Plastic Compounds (WPC) are being obtained, compostable and semi-rigid cardboard-like plastic compounds, from biopolymers and agricultural by-products with a high cellulose content. In addition, the use of extracts from the skins (the solid remains of grape pressing) as additives-colorants will allow the cardboard-like sheets to be colored or dyed in a sustainable way.
The research is financed by the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI), with the co-financing of the European Union, within the call for Strategic Projects in Cooperation of 2022.
