Improving the efficiency of agricultural and food systems by introducing biodegradable and compostable products in strawberry supply chain: experience from northern Italy

Bioplastics can be used to make biodegradable products for agriculture. Biodegradability can contribute to alleviating the waste problem of this sector. The FRUITGEST project aimed to increase the efficiency of strawberry supply chain by introducing biodegradable products at different levels of the supply chain itself. The first task interested the strawberry agricultural phase. Here the traditional mulch film made of traditional plastic (non-biodegradable) is replaced with the biodegradable one. By doing so the waste passes from 260 kg per ha up to zero. The second task was focused on the development of innovative strawberry packaging systems (i.e. flowpack). Aim was to increase the shelf life of the product, thus decreasing food losses, and to increase the efficiency of waste management at supermarket level. As a matter of fact, the packaging and its content (i.e. expired strawberry) are suitable to be collected along with organic fraction without any operations since the packaging is compostable according to EN13432. These changes in the strawberry supply chain were assessed by means of LCA using a consequential approach. Results have shown that the most important benefits were those related to the increase of shelf life of the product; this avoids wasting food (i.e. strawberry). Furthermore, also the use of biodegradable mulch film and packaging has positive consequences. Basically this project has demonstrated that, in particular circumstances and applications, the use of biodegradable bioplastics is beneficial, especially for the effects in waste treatment systems.