Alternative to plastic: the Tecnopolo of Rimini in the front row

EcopAckLab: an innovative packaging system for the conservation quality improvement and completely compostable

The fight against plastic is now a concrete fact.
Across Europe awareness-raising campaigns and new regulations to protect the environment are bearing fruit and, in the viewfinder, packaging above all is finished, as they represent most of the plastics that end up in the sea.

Packaging, as evidenced by a study by Legambiente, is difficult to recycle also from an economic point of view (the cost estimated by the World Economic Forum of 40 billion dollars). Added to this is that, although various companies have begun to have greater sensitivity on the subject, there are still no universally widespread solutions that replace oil derivatives.

However, alternatives to plastic are beginning to circulate.
For years, in the world of design, bioplastics with a totally vegetable base have been designed, or packaging made from sugar or wax derivatives that have a maturity of just over the contained product.
Other studies work on new totally eco-compostable polymers that therefore have a zero impact on the environment, while maintaining all the characteristics of robustness and quality of the most classic polymers.

Even within the Rimini Technopole, research and experiments are being carried out on alternative packaging methods that can counteract pollution and the spread of plastics.

The EcoPackLab project, created by the Interdepartmental Center for Industrial Research in Advanced Mechanics and Materials, aims to create a sustainable and innovative packaging system for improving the preservation quality of packaged foods.
The project, through an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, related to quality, safety and logistic efficiency, makes use of the topicality of two laboratories and industrial supply chains that make their transversal skills related to different packaging areas available to the regional economy.

The realized prototype allows to produce and test films suitable for the needs of the interested companies, which can then validate their technological solutions in an environment similar to the industrial one.

Further information can be obtained by contacting the Rimini Tecnopolo.

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