Descripción del proyecto
Envases ecológicos y sostenibles para el pescado fresco
La industria pesquera distribuye 6,3 millones de toneladas de pescado al año en toda Europa, envasados en cajas de poliestireno expandido para mantener la frescura y evitar la descomposición. Sin embargo, dichas cajas representan una gran amenaza ambiental, ya que se fabrican a partir de combustibles fósiles y son de un solo uso. A pesar de reconocer este problema, las alternativas actuales resultan insuficientes en cuanto al rendimiento o al coste, lo cual las hace inapropiadas para esta tarea. El proyecto Cool Wool Box, financiado con fondos europeos, propone una alternativa ecológica: una caja de cartón aislante que es biodegradable, ligera, resistente, impermeable y hecha de lana regenerada o desechada integrada, lo cual cumple con un modelo de producción propio de la economía circular que no genera residuos. Esta tecnología también proporciona una mayor capacidad de aislamiento a la vez que mantiene una huella de carbono y unos costes inferiores.
Objetivo
Each year around 6.3 million tons of fish are distributed around Europe. Maintaining the cold chain during distribution is critical to avoid spoilage and guarantee freshness, ensuring the highest quality fish is delivered. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) boxes are usually used with this purpose. However, they are a major threat to the environment, since they are manufactured from fossil fuels and are used as single-use disposable packaging, having thus a high carbon footprint. Moreover, due to the low recycling rate of EPS, most of these boxes end up in landfills, contributing to the vast amounts of plastic waste generated.
An increasingly stringent regulation on plastic waste (including the possibility of EU policies limiting EPS use), and a growing demand from consumers for sustainable practices are driving fish producers to look for plastic-free eco-friendly packaging alternatives. However, currently available options on the market still fail either on performance or cost.
Cool Wool ehf was founded in 2017 with the aim of developing the Cool Wool box: an insulating box for the fishing industry that will lower the environmental impact of its supply chain. Cool Wool box is an eco-friendly, biodegradable, light and strong waterproof cardboard box with integrated wool layers coming from discarded wool from the farm sector or regenerated wool from the textile industry. In this way, Cool Wool Box (which will be produced following a zero-waste circular economy production model) grants a superior insulation capacity to state-of-the-art solutions, while having a low carbon footprint and cutting down packaging, transport, and disposal costs.
This project will allow our company to transition from pre-revenue to profitable business in just two years of commercialization, growing our team to 13 people. Moreover, it will contribute to our vision of leading the way towards a more sustainable future by developing eco-friendly thermal packaging solutions.
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringtextiles
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
Régimen de financiación
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinador
170 SELTJARNARNES
Islandia
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.