In the Mantua area, vegetable paint is made from agricultural waste such as tomato peels (photo)

NATURAL PAINT FROM TOMATO WASTE

From tomato scraps natural paints, then passing through a biogas power plant. The circular economy in the company BiocopacPlus It's not a slogan or a label, but a highly innovative enterprise that successfully brings together industry and agriculture. Under the banner of sustainability and "Nothing is Wasted."

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BIOCOPAC PLUS

We are Canneto sull'Oglio, in the Mantua area, where the Chiesa family, father Virginio with his children Stefano, Alessandro and Maria Elena, have been cultivating 180 hectares of land for many years. Here there are cereals, corn and above all tomatoes.

Just the tomato peel It is very useful for the project purposes reuse from The circular economy: in fact, it contains cutin, a substance which, once extracted, allows the production of natural bioresinIn particular, the Chiesa family's company produces a special natural, plant-based paint, which is then used on food packaging, the classic cans. Here too, the circular economy mechanism is noteworthy: the peeled and processed tomato contained in the can is then returned as a raw material to create the lettering on the can itself. This is an alternative to synthetic paint, which is highly toxic. And so theagriculture, through recycling, is also at the service of the sector food packaging.

TO KNOW MORE: Bioplastic is now extracted from coffee and parsley waste.

PAINT FROM TOMATO PEELS

The prospects for this project are enormous. "We have precise and rigorous statistics that show that in the Northern regions alone something like 500 tons of tomato peelsWe manage to recover about a tenth of it for our industrial project, so the growth potential in the sector is truly enormous" says Stefano Chiesa.

Finally, from what remains of the tomatoes once the peel has been removed to free the cutin, BiocopacPlus obtains raw material for the biogas plant which he built in his Plot, where 700 heifers are also raised.

The project is competing for the 2018 edition of the Non Sprecare Award. To learn more about the competition and participate, go to here!

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(The cover image is taken from the Twitter page of the company BiocopacPlus)

ALL THE PROJECTS COMPETING FOR THE 2018 EDITION OF THE NON SPRECARE AWARD:

• Dog and cat beds, bowls, and litter boxes: only made with recyclable plastic from the Bama group.
• Livelux by Alessandro Martini, the Florentine craftsman who creates low-energy lighting from waste.
• Cameri holds the record for the highest school attendance in Italy: 80 percent of students arrive in the morning by bicycle.
• The Arsenal of Hospitality, Lombard families who welcome young people who are alone. And they finance it by selling party favors (photo)
• Round Table, the club of professionals and entrepreneurs fighting to eliminate food waste
• 3Bee, an electronic device that protects beehives from pesticides and parasites
• Chimera, the company that creates a natural fertilizer from chicken manure. It's also useful for generating electricity.
• Plastic-free straws, a bartender's alternative: make them with a special type of pasta, zite.