Aimplas produces plastic film from coffee waste

January 2, 2023

aimplas

Converting biological waste into resources is one of the keys to the circular economy and the main objective of the European project WaysTUP! The project, financed by the Horizon H2020 program, works on different lines of research to establish new value chains for the use of urban biowaste. Within the framework of this project, Aimplas, Technological Center for Plastics, has produced a plastic film from used coffee grounds, thus transforming waste into a source of high-value products.

In the words of Nuria Lopez, principal investigator of the project at Aimplas, “WaysTUP! is a clear example of how bio-waste can play an important role in the transition towards a circular economy by avoiding the generation of bio-waste and harnessing its potential as a source of high-value secondary resources. In our case, we are transforming coffee waste into plastic film for packaging." Meanwhile, other project partners, such as SAV – Agricultores de la Vega de Valencia, are coordinating partners of the project responsible for the recovery of waste to produce food additives, feed and oils for the food and cosmetic industry.

There are three different ways of valuing common waste, in this case, coffee. Thanks to this project, various forms of urban bio-waste, including fish and meat waste, and used coffee grounds and cooking oil, are being transformed into new bio-based products, such as food additives, seasonings, insect proteins , bioethanol, biosolvents and bioplastics for packaging. .

The bio-based plastic film produced by Aimplas was obtained from PHA from restaurant coffee grounds collected by Bio-Bean (UK). Aimplas first formulated the PHA so that it could be processed by extrusion and then manufactured the film, which can be used in different types of flexible packaging.

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