The BIOMASS project – Biodegradable Materials for Sustainable Agriculture and Tourism – has been realized thanks to the financial support of the European Community and it will have a duration of three years (October 2004 – October 2007).
This project promotes the diffusion of using biodegradable materials in the agricultural and tourist sector in order to stimulate a new outlook over the environmental protection by the consumers.
Joining this project the growers can use concrete farm implements to reduce the use of plastic materials such as pots and films for soil covering.
The Chamber of Commerce of Savona (Liguria), promotor of this project, has formed a team of different partners. Among them, L’Ortofrutticola is engaged in the agricultural sector, sorting out the suitable nurseries for the experimentation of biodegradable materials in the cultivation.
The biodegradable materials will be used:
- for soil covering to unable the growing of weeds
- for the anticipated growing during the most unsuitable periods (biodegradable films)
- for the production of young plants (trays made of compost accumulation)
- for the production of ornamental plants (pots made of compost accumulation)
The biodegradable pot is mainly made of thermoplastic starches and other natural substances like cellulose. At the end of the productive cycle, through a normal process of compost accumulation, the pot degrades completely in a few months without leaving any residual stuff.
The spreading in the use of biodegradable materials in agriculture and tourism is of great importance in a European region such as Liguria, so highly representative in the Mediterranean area of these two sectors.
