PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Plastic production has been in continuous growth for more than 50 years. Global production in 2014 rose to 311 million tonnes, a 3.9% increase when compared to 2012. Europe accounted for 20% of total production – second only to China (26%). The total EU consumption of plastics is close to 50 million tonnes, with packaging being the major use (39.5%). Spain is in the top five European countries for plastic material demand (Plastics Europe Market Research Group, 2015).
Spain produces some 6 million tonnes per year of citrus fruits. This generates a large amount of organic waste. Currently, part of this waste is used as livestock feed, but its rapid fermentation turns it into an environmental problem. Furthermore, due to its high moisture content, the transportation of this citrus-fruit waste is very costly, creating a logistical problem.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE CITRUSPACK project aimed to demonstrate a process that will enable treated wastes from the citrus industry to be used in packaging and cosmetic products. Its long-term goal was to show that it is possible to entirely eliminate the use of non-biodegradable plastics in packaging.
The specific objectives of LIFE CITRUSPACK were to:
- Optimise waste management in the citrus juice industry through an innovative process to extract natural fibres and pulp;
- Demonstrate how extracted natural fibres from peels can be used as a cheap and natural additive for the reinforcement of 100% bio-based and biodegradable plastic bottles and jars for juices;
- Manufacture the juice bottles for line adjustments, tests and certification including cold pasteurisation and high pressure process (HPP);
- Complete the cycle by using other substances from the pulp residues as natural antioxidants, pectins or essential oils in cosmetic creams, replacing other compounds;
- Create a new commercial brand and carry out full validation and pre-norm testing approval;
- Assess market acceptance of the new products through in-store consumer tests; and
- Diversify and grow the income of citrus farmers and processors by creating new value chains from citrus waste.
RESULTS
The LIFE CITRUSPACK project demonstrated a process for valorising the citrus waste generated by juice processing companies. It showed that fibres and other components could be extracted from the waste and used in the formulation of 100% bio-based and biodegradable packaging and cosmetic products.
Specifically, the extracted natural fibres and pulp were combined with polylactic acid and other additives as materials in the production of bio-based cosmetic jars (20% of inclusion), bio-based bottles (5% of inclusion) and cosmetic products (2% of inclusion). For the composition of the bio-bottle and bio-jar, orange powder (dehydrated wastes) was found to be the best performing, while orange comminute, which results from milling the orange peel, was most suitable for composition of the cosmetic cream.
In total, more than 800 kg of compounded material were used to produce two scaled-up demonstrations: up to 2 000 bottles (eight samples; 250 bottles per sample) and more than 2 000 cosmetic jars (six samples; 350 jars per sample) were produced and fully characterised, defining their mechanical and thermal properties, rheology and microscopic analysis. Furthermore, throughout the project more than 15 different references of cosmetic products were tested, including facemasks, eye serums, face and body scrubs, creams and toothpastes. Finally, three cosmetic products were selected as demonstrators and tested for market acceptance: two moisturising facemasks and a day face cream with sun protection factor 15.
Although the packaging materials were shown to perform well under high pressure and pasteurisation processes – for example, orange juice in the project bottles has a shelf life of up to 90 days – Life-cycle Analysis showed that the processes of mixing citrus waste with PLA, drying and milling of the citrus waste powder consume higher amounts of energy than the production of conventional or PLA packaging. The flexibility and elasticity of the bottles must also be improved.
However, the project products are fully compostable. The bio-bottles were designed for food contact approval, and the cosmetic creams comply with the COSMOS standard. While the price of these products is generally higher than those using conventional plastics, they are competitive for premium juices and cosmetic creams. Focus groups that included customers gave favourably assessments of the products.
Finally, the beneficiaries collaborated with several stakeholders in the production of a range of additional products incorporating citrus waste: ITC Packaging for new food packaging products, MAARs for fruit nets and ULLA for drink reminder devices. Other companies, such as KAIOSid, DRV and FL Cosmetique, have also expressed interest in replicating the project solution in cosmetic packaging and natural cosmetic ingredients.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).
