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SMT4-CT97-2187
Labelling biodegradable products |
Objectives
The project aims at developing of guidelines, testing schemes and predictive models for labelling biodegradability of agro-industrial polymers in relation to their environmental fate in agriculture and waste treatment, and taking into account the following EC regulations/ and proposals for future regulations: COM (95)(96C / 12 06), COM (94) (94, 382/ 07) 94/60/EC, COM (96) (96/C 382/05), 94/62/EC The communications of the Commission, i.e. documents COM (96) 187 final (30/04/96) and COM (96) 463 final (09/10/96) and their amended or follow-up version should also be taken into account.
In order to reach this main objective, the following specific objectives are assigned:
(a) To obtain better knowledge of available and recently developed so-called "biodegradable" materials, including environmental fate .and characterisation methods.
An inventory of all the biodegradable materials commercially available will be set-up, including commercial name, name of the supplier, material composition (if given by the manufacturer), cost, present uses and biodegradability assessment given by the supplier. At least, 30 materials should be included in this inventory..
(b) To determine the degree, rate of biodegradation and environmental safety of different biodegradable materials (e.g. starch based, polyesters, etc.) using laboratory tests, including test development/improvement if necessary.
The aim is to give the biodegradability and safety indexes of 20 materials selected on the basis of their ultimate representativity and priority among the 30 ones included in (a), using the developed or improved laboratory tests for biodegradability and safety.
(c) To determine the degree and rate of "real-time biodegradation" and environmental safety of different biodegradable materials in practical relevant environments - either agricultural or composting ones.
(d) To determine and model the correlation of biodegradation data from the above developed and improved standard laboratory tests and "real-time" biodegradation experiments, i.e. the relevance of these above developed and improved standard laboratory tests should be assessed.
The aim is to develop and validate a model for the prediction of the biodegradation in situ, regarding the developed/ improved laboratory tests.
(e) To develop guidelines for labelling biodegradability of polymeric materials in relation to their environmental fate in agriculture and waste treatment.
The aim is to supply a paper guide describing the experimental conditions selected for both of the developed/ improved safety and biodegradability tests, and the developed and validated model.
Contacts
Coordinator
Participant
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