Objective
The agricultural sector within the EU generates some 274,000tonnes of plastics waste p.a. of which ~88,000tonnes are agricultural plastics film waste. This equates to 250,000tonnes p.a. with ‘soilage’ (soil/grass/stones/etc). Agricultural plastic film waste has proven difficult to recycle commercially due to the high levels of contamination and its wide geographical dispersion which lead to high transport costs. This means that recycling schemes require financial support from governments and/or must charge high fees in order to be financially sustainable. Hence many farmers use alternative, environmentally harmful, disposal methods, such as burning or land-filling, which do not take advantage of the latent value of recyclates and do not comply with current and future legislation. Our project aims to achieve increased stability and growth within the agricultural plastics recycling sector by significantly reducing transportation costs and making recycling schemes economically and environmentally sustainable. This will be achieved by developing two technologies: 1) A portable recycling cleaning ‘unit’ to clean, separate and compress the agricultural film waste prior to transportation. 2) Logistical models and inter-related web-based software to optimise waste collection. This system will surpass the current state of the art by using air-flow (rather than water) and utilising the inherent properties of agricultural films to remove contaminants at the source. Advantages of the new process will be: the retention of a valuable biomass resource, >50% reduction in transportation costs and reductions in recycling costs and fees by ~€80/tonne and ~€20/tonne respectively. Within 5 years of project end we anticipate >50% penetration of the forecasted EU agricultural plastics recycling market equating to direct sales of ~€40million and cost savings of ~€55million, with additional opportunities through licensing as well as in global and secondary markets ie construction.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software
- agricultural sciences agricultural biotechnology biomass
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-SME-2007-2
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
NG7 7GR NOTTINGHAM
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.