The Technological Center for Footwear and Plastics has recently presented the Agro2Circular, or A2C, project in the program “Europa en la antena de la SER“, a weekly space in which the channel shares news about the European Union, especially the one that most interests it may have for the Region of Murcia and for the daily life of its citizens. With this collaboration, the centre announces the promising project that has more than 16 million euros in funding and in which more than 40 entities from all over Europe participate, addressing the main challenges of the agri-food industry.
CETEC at SER RADIO
“Agro2circular is a project that has started recently, although, like all projects, it has a lot of work behind it”, explained the announcer Agustín Roca in the interview with Fuensanta Monzó, head of R&D projects at CETEC and coordinator of the project.
During his speech, Fuensanta spoke about the objectives of the project, the work that is being carried out to achieve its objectives, also, the weight that the Region of Murcia has in Agro2circular as part of a huge European consortium: “Not only research centres, universities or companies that are going to implement these products are included”, commented the coordinator with the announcer, “but, in addition, environmental experts participate, to evaluate sustainability […]; also experts in economics and finance, to ensure economic viability […]; experts in the humanities to assess the impact of Agro2Circular on society […], and the Administration also participates to ensure that the project adapts to territorial legislation “.
Agro2Circular and the challenge of agri-food waste
“Bearing in mind that the project is coordinated from Murcia and has European actors of all kinds, among the 41 companies that participate, 18 are from the Region of Murcia, and with more than 16 million euros granted, of which more than six go to get here, the impact it is going to have in the region is important”, he assured during the Fuensanta programme.
The Agro2Circular project is based on what is known as the circular economy, an approach to saving and sustainability by taking advantage of and recovering materials, which reduces the environmental and economic impact. Specifically, the project’s great challenge is to address the main challenges of the agri-food industry, a key strategic sector
in Europe, which represents an important part of the food value chain but is also one of the great producers of waste.
About a third of the food produced is wasted, and some of this fruit and vegetable waste is exploited, at best transferred for animal feed, compost or biomass energy fuel. The A2C seeks to reduce this waste by demonstrating innovative green hybrid routes for the extraction of high-value-added bioactives from fruit and vegetable waste from the agri-food supply chain, for their formulation in new foods, nutraceuticals and cosmetic products and biotransformation of organic by-products into bioplastics through a cascade recycling and zero waste approach.
About ‘Europe on the antenna of the SER’
“With a simple and direct language, ‘Europe in the antenna of the Ser’ will try to make visible with nearby examples and the presence of a series of guests, what advantages it brings us and how from the Region of Murcia we can contribute to its future and to the well-being of all European citizens”. This is how the program “Europe on the antenna of the SER” is described, a radio space that was born at the beginning of 2022 with the aim of publicizing projects financed with European Funds in which the municipalities, companies and associations of the Region are participating of Murcia, among other things and in which CETEC participated last Tuesday, like every week, at 1:05 p.m.
