150 livestock family farms have joined a bio-economy plant project in Alcarràs, Catalonia, a region with many livestock farms and fruit plantations. The project aims to manage manure in a more sustainable and circular way.
The slow flower movement is growing in Europe and aims to provide local, seasonal and organic flowers. Why? Because the international flower industry is very harmful to nature and has major negative impacts in developing countries.
Agroamb Prodalt SL is a rural SME working in the primary sector. It provides agricultural services for farmers and organic fertilisers from biodegradable waste generated in the primary and agri-food sectors. Its process sanitises biodegradable waste and animal by-products with lime and produces organic fertilisers (turning these waste materials into resources).
Ekofungi is a Serbian company that takes a 100% circular approach to mushroom cultivation. It has pioneered a technology for sustainable cultivation of edible mushrooms using recycled cellulose waste. Each year, Ekofungi grows 130 tons of mushrooms which are either sold fresh or dehydrated and mixed with other vegetables.
The Italian company CIA has found that the most appropriate way to reuse coffee husks is as a fertiliser and soil conditioner by composting them in organic farms.
Italy's Puglia Region has large expanses of olive groves. Pruning these trees yields around 800 kilotonnes of residual biomass each year and Fiusis uses this biomass to produce energy.
Coffee grounds contain many nutrients which are excellent for growing mushrooms. This secondary raw material is even ready for use, having been sterilised at 80 to 90°C by the coffee machine. What's left once the mushrooms have been collected is a good fertiliser.