CONQUERING NEW STRATEGIES TO PREVENT AND REDUCE PACKAGING POLLUTION

As Europe shifts to a bio-based circular economy, a plethora of new packaging restrictions have emerged. MAGNO seeks to improve packaging effectiveness, sustainability, efficient usage, end-of-life (reuse and recycling), and innovative business practices in EU food systems through revolutionary strategies shaped for the ecological transition required by the European Green Deal and EU 2030 climate target plan. These strategies will strengthen the EU food and packaging policy frameworks at a local and regional level. They will also increase social innovation, consumer participation and acceptance of new packaging designs and production models in cross-border food value chains through a web platform and a series of citizen science tools. At the beginning of the project, an overview of Europe’s ecosystems and value chains for different kinds of plastic packaging will be studied. A detailed quantification of impacts and solutions in terms of health, environment, raw materials, and sustainability will then be developed to set the basis of an Ecosystem Digital Twin software. The Digital Twin will be programmed to support the analysis of different scenarios which contributes by not only providing ground-breaking strategies for improving the packaging sector but also identifying the best options in terms of innovative business. The whole project will be supported by the active participation of food multi-actors (researchers, food business operators, food packaging producers, developers of sustainable packaging, packaging converters and recyclers, consumers, and local and regional authorities). Their contribution to the creation of results and validation of the final strategies will prevent and reduce plastic packaging pollution for the food and packaging sectors.