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.
Ricehouse natural mortars are obtained by expertly mixing aerial lime with rice husks, a agricultural by-product derived from husking raw rice.
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.
EntoGreen aims to develop sustainable feed and organic fertilisers by using bio-based technologies to recycle nutrients from agricultural and food waste and reintroducing them into the food chain, thus closing the nutrient cycle.
In May 2019, the Belgium-based fruit and vegetable cutting business Allgro set up its own water plant. The facility turns wastewater into drinking water, thereby slashing the food company’s mains water consumption.
Each of the companies in the Envien Group produces a biofuel component, with waste used for specific purposes, such as manufacturing pelleted animal feed or as a co-substrate for biogas production.
Entocycle upcycles local food waste to feed black soldier fly larvae, which grow very fast and become protein-rich animal feed.
Italian startup Vaia has developed a passive loudspeaker for smartphones by using - as raw material - exclusively wood brought down by storm Vaia that badly hit the Dolomite mountains in Northern Italy in 2018.
“Staramaki” is a straw made of wheat. It is produced by a social cooperative KoinSep in Kilkis, northern Greece. The most widely produced local product wheat is used to create a viable eco-friendly alternative to single use plastic straws. At the same time they create employment opportunities and promote social cohesion, as well as local and regional development.
RecyOuest is a green economy start-up that recycles contaminated filamentary thermoplastics such as agricultural nets and twines.
Refarmed uses the concept of ‘building integrated agriculture’. High-impact buildings (meaning they produce a lot of waste and excess heat) are equipped with rooftop greenhouses which turn all that waste into value - to support low-impact food production.
Studio Thomas Vailly's project makes use of what is left of the sunflower crop to produce innovative materials.
Tedre Farm, located in Southern Estonia, grows raspberries and produces raspberry juice and other derivatives.
In 2017, in a collaboration with the Estonian University of Life Sciences, it started a project to study technologies for the extraction of oil from raspberry seeds, particularly known for its medicinal properties.
Alchemia-nova, the Institute for innovative phytochemistry and closed loop processes, has colloborated with vertECO, GRETA and LooPi to develop three types of green walls, which treat wastewater to service water standards and create plant biomass and fertiliser.
Legno Urbano is an innovative project developed in Italy to promote wood recovery from trees which are felled in urban areas because of their age, their instability or spatial planning needs.
This Life DOP project operated in partnership with the Italian dairy company Consorzio Latterie Virgilio uses livestock waste in anaerobic digestion plants to produce renewable energy and renewable fertilisers (solid digestate) which are then exported to non-livestock areas.