Environmental performances of new products/procesess

According to the FAO, one third of global food production is wasted every year. In this scenario, wastes from the agri-food chain can be seen as precursors of new materials, reducing the exploitation of non-renewable raw materials. This goal is crucial part of the "2030 Agenda". In particular, SDG12 aims to guarantee sustainable models of production and consumption by aiming to "do more and better with less", increasing the benefits in terms of well-being derived from economic activities, through the reduction of the use of resources, degradation and pollution in the entire production cycle. However, if circularity seems to be sustainable in terms of resource recovery, there is a range of different environmental aspects to be considered together with social sustainability. Life cycle assessment needs to be used to get an overall environmental assessment of different waste management systems and related new processes and products proposed in the different project’s tasks. 

Data from the experimental activities implemented in the tasks 2.1.1., 2.1.2, 2.1.3, and 2.1.4, will be analyzed to get a picture of the environmental, economic and energetic aspects from circular economy-based actions (UNICAT, CNR, UNIMI). To ease the enterprises in the re-use of by-products and wastes in the food / feed / non-food supply chains, possible tax relief tools will be investigated (UNIBA). Environmental hot spots of the studied processes will be defined in order to optimize the processes. LCA could be applied to:

• Environmental impacts and benefits assessment of the bioconversion of different agro-industrial by-products and wastes by means of insects (see T2.1.2). 
• Environmental impacts and benefits assessment of new bio-polymers (e.g., chitosan, bacterial cellulose) obtained from by-products and wastes and usable as food packaging material. Further research will deal with the use of biopolymers as mulching in vineyards, to answer the following questions: 1) how agro-climatic conditions, coupled with biopolymers, can influence crops production; 2) how the mulching affects the plant response to water stress; 3) how the mulching undergoes biodegradation in soil.
• Environmental impacts and benefits assessment of different livestock feeding systems integrating new products from the previous tasks. 

• Life Cyle Assessment of all the prototypes designed in the T2.1.3
• At least one proposal of fiscal relief benefitting those enterprises that adopt circular economy-based production processes.