The Technological Institute of Plastics (AIMPLAS) has received the award for the best European project of the Valencian Community 2013 in the category of Innovation for the development of a biodegradable mesh for agri-food products within the framework of the ECOBIONET project.
Thanks to its participation in the ECOBIONET project, AIMPLAS has successfully developed an innovative mesh for packaging citrus fruits, potatoes, onions or mollusks that, unlike conventional ones, does not need to be separated from organic waste for recycling. The new mesh is biodegradable and compostable, so it must be deposited with the rest of the organic waste generated both at home and on commercial surfaces. In conditions of industrial compostability, the nets become compost for the plants, in less than six months, and are incorporated back into the crop cycle of the products they had contained.
The biodegradable mesh developed by AIMPLAS meets all functional requirements for packaging from potatoes, garlic and onions, to shellfish and mollusks, including citrus fruits and vegetables. So much so, that it can be manufactured in all the variants on the market: oriented extruded meshes (those that maintain their original shape with the product inside: for garlic and molluscs, for example), non-oriented extruded meshes (for citrus fruits, potatoes and a great variety of fruit and vegetable products) and these meshes combined with film (designed to be able to see the product and that it breathes, but that prevent residues or dust from falling out of the container).
