Resource-efficient processes for the production and circularization of innovative RECYclable-by-DeSIGN fresh meat smart packaging from wood

Thanks to the development and implementation of several innovative technologies which focus strongly on the efficient use of energy, water and chemicals, a ubiquitous complex multi-material product, the fresh meat packaging consumed by the millions every day, will be thoroughly redesigned to make it fully biobased, smart and recyclable at conventional paper recycling mills.

To achieve such remarkable goal, every intermediate product contained in that complex product, i.e., the tray, the barrier coating, the absorbing pad and the transparent film, will be made almost exclusively of wood constituents (fibres, micro-nanofibres, lignin and sugars, which have been chemically or enzymatically modified) and integrated with two food-quality sensors (rotting and cold-chain).

Finally, several innovations will be brought to the existing recycling stages, both oriented to increase the overall efficiency of the process: incorporation of specific identification markers to allow precise sorting of the bio-contaminated products, advanced oxidation treatments to both sanitize and decrease energy consumption of the process and chemo-enzymatic revalorization of the recalcitrant fractions.