The main objective of the project is to develop, demonstrate and evaluate an innovative decentralized approach for sustainable management of livestock waste achieving environmental protection and climate change mitigation in line with the requirements of the EU and National legislation through actions complementary to those of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme.

The project activities introduce high level of innovation concerning the development, operation and evaluation of a prototype system for livestock treatment and for the post-treatment of the by-products derived from the involved processes (combination of advanced biological and chemical treatment processes), resulting in recovery of materials and energy and developing a concrete market for the end products (i.e. energy, compost, reusable effluent, phosphorous).

Furthermore, innovative assessment methodologies and tools developed and demonstrated for the evaluation of the applied livestock waste management scheme.

The project provide insight on how the sustainable livestock waste scheme can be implemented in larger scale in Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Spain and in other EU countries.

The LIFE + ECOCITRIC project will demonstrate the technical , economic and environmental feasibility of a new system of comprehensive utilization of pruning citrus , from which innovative products with high added value such as essential oils , foliar fertilizer , feed will be obtained feed and biomass ( fuel and bed cattle chips) .

The Project FAROS (the Spanish word for lighthouses) will take advantage of the background of experience, good practices and technologies derived from both the human experience, the literature as well as the results obtained in recent studies to give the guidelines to define a global and real-time information system both on board and in land as the core of an efficient and optimal working network of the actors involved in the fishing activity (fishermen and fleets, ports, industry) by taking advantage of the existing synergies between them.

One of the main problems in order to apply valorisation processes and technologies of discards/wastes at an industrial scale was the lack of information concerning availability of raw material, since the inherent characteristics of the fishing activity make it very seasonal and quite unpredictable.

Another problem is related to all the logistics of discards and wastes once they are landing, since a well-defined logistic and management network does not exist there, which could allow, for instance, to efficiently determine and deliver an specific amount of raw material (discard/waste) required by a given transformation/valorisation industry where a gap in the demand exists.

The Project FAROS will try to go a step further to finish previous work related to the characterisation of discards/wastes and to the definition of valorisation technologies and their pre-industrial application by defining a global network which will imply and interrelate all actors both outland (fleets) as well as inland (ports, transport agents and transformation industries) to efficiently manage the fishing activity, trying to accomplish the “no-discards” policy.

The project objective is to demonstrate an alternative economic and ecological technique for degrading completely pesticide residues in wastewater produced on farms by remaining in containers and tanks phytosanitary treatment equipment and rinsing of these after use, cleaning machinery and equipment, etc., with innovative equipment located on farms.

Thus, this project provides solutions to a current European problem, especially in the Mediterranean area as Directive 2009/128 / EC of sustainable use of pesticides requires Member states to take measures to ensure that operations professionals do not endanger human health or the environment.

Lacquers for foodstuff packaging mainly consist of petroleum derivatives, with epoxy resin being the most widely utilised component. The use of a petrol-based lacquer increases the carbon footprint of a packaging company by 0.4% for each kilogram of metallic cans produced; 90% of this impact is linked to the production of the epoxy resin that causes 3.31 g of CO2 emissions per kilogram of cans. Some efforts have already been made to introduce into this process components or additives from renewable sources.

The LIFE BIOCOPACPlus project aims to demonstrate the technical feasibility and the effectiveness on an industrial scale of the production of a bio-lacquer obtained from the reuse of tomato waste (i.e. skins) – the lacquer will serve as a coating for food contact applications in metal cans.

The project’s main objective focused on developing new approaches for reusing fishing industry waste and by-catch.

This was based on piloting innovative integrated waste management and processing practices, both on-board fishing vessels and also on shore in a dedicated test plant.

The latter aimed to demonstrate waste processing approaches capable of creating adding value opportunities for food and pharmaceutical industries from fishing by-catches.

The LIFE + TL-BIOFER project aims to address the environmental problem of wastewater produced by small- and medium-size urban agglomerations. To meet this aim, the project plans to implement two actions.

First, it will develop and demonstrate a wastewater treatment plant using a Twin-Layer (TL) system: an advanced nutrient removal technology based on immobilised cultivation of microalgae. In this technology, microalgae are immobilised by self-adhesion on a wet, microporous ultrathin substrate (the substrate layer). A second layer, which consists of a macroporous fibrous structure (the source layer), will provide and distribute the growth medium.

Secondly, the project also plans to address the shortage of P by developing produced and testing biofertilisers derived from the remaining microalgae. The fertiliser will meet high agronomical standards of sustainable farming as well as the requirements of current and future EU regulations.

The trials will be conducted in microplots for two different crops in northern Italy and four different crops in Spain.

The project aims to improve the sustainability of the distribution of fresh produce to create a more competitive sector that can offer better products to the final consumer.

Currently, the time span of storage, transportation and distribution of fresh produce from wholesaler to final consumer is exceedingly large. Storage/transportation is performed with standard containers that do not reproduce the ideal conditions of respiration rate of each type of fruit or vegetable.

The Fresh Box container will be  developed in order to reduce food waste, extend fresh produce shelf life and quality, and reduce fuel/energy consumption.

Fresh Box container characteristics:

 -   Active/smart container that stores/transports each type of fresh produce in the ideal conditions of respiration rate

 -   Monitored with an innovative Integrated Sensor Kit to check the main environmental features in the container and allow traceability

 -   Light-weight, manufactured with a technology that saves energy and made of innovative recyclable material

 -   Transports fresh produce harvested at a higher maturity stage: consumers will be able to enjoy fruits and vegetables with better features

The LIFE SMILE project’s main aim focuses on reducing and recovering marine litter in coastal areas. This will be achieved through the development of governance processes for implementing an innovative ‘catching mechanism’ for marine litter in a pilot area. All work will contribute to the region’s ICZM operations.

Specific actions will include:

       • Implementation of an integrated approach to solid waste management including specific activities related to marine litter in waste management strategies

       • Extension of existing ICZM operations further inland

       • Standardisation and harmonisation of related monitoring programmes

       • Development of governance processes, at local and regional level, for promoting more shared policies and actions in coastal areas

       • Implementation of a catching mechanism to reduce and prevent the transport of solid wastes from river basins, including a cost/benefit analysis of the system

       • Raising the awareness of environmental stewardship amongst sea and coastal users in order to improve the efficacy of existing law and regulations in addressing marine litter problems.

The LIFE VALPORC project's main objective is the enhancement of products obtained in the process of treatment of pig carcasses (SANDACH, category 2):

       • Production of flour and fat of optimum quality for subsequent recovery as biofuels.

       • Obtaining of 2nd generation biodiesel from fat.

       • Using MBM as a substrate for biogas production by co-digestion with manure.

       • Using the digestate as fertilizer.

Thus, the project integrates processes that generate added value to environmental and socio-economic level in the pig sector.

       • Implementing an ecosystem approach to managing the activity thereby increasing sustainability. This will be achieved through a new local and national-level governance system; Better understanding and dealing with the impacts of recreational fishing from the shore on the natural coastal environment

       • Developing awareness in order to stop the erosion of coastal biodiversity linked to fishing practices

       • Contributing to the design and implementation of management plans for Marine Protected Areas that are subjected to pressure linked to recreational fishing from the shore

The LIFE SynSpirit project aims at demonstrating a new anaerobic fermentation process through which organic waste streams and low quality crude glycerine are efficiently converted into high value bio-methanol. 

For the first time, the project will connect a biological anaerobic digestion process for crude glycerine with the sustainable thermochemical production of bio-methanol, based on high quality glycerine. 

Life GISWASTE is a local-level demo project which can be applied to any other European region which is struggling to manage its agrifood by-products.

The aim is to develop a GIS-based methodology and IT tool which simulates the technical, economic, and environmental viability of the recovery alternatives for the agrifood by-products (chiefly vegetables, meat, and dairy products) in the Basque Autonomous Community.

The recovery alternatives which are evaluated in the Life GISWASTE project focus on two specific areas: biogas generation and animal feed production.

The QUARTERBACK for LIFE project’s main objective is to mitigate the environmental consequences of the production of crude glycerine in the oleochemical industry.

The aim is to demonstrate, in the first full-scale application of its kind, both the technical and economic feasibility of operating an integrated process in which crude glycerine is used as the only feedstock for an anaerobic digestion process in order to produce biogas for local use.

This innovative process will enable oleochemical producers to meet part of their energy consumption with a carbon-neutral biofuel that enables a 25% (12 000 tonnes CO2/year) reduction in the facility’s greenhouse gas emissions.

VADEAR Project will make a valorization of the bycatch of the trawl fishery in the Andalucía and Murcia regions, with the aim to improve the fishery environmental ecosystem conditions by the reduction of discards and at the same time provide new economic insight by the reduction of the fishing cost per unit of effort.

This proposal is based in the integration of the scientist knowledge on trawl fisheries, and the enterprise of fish manufacture industry.

The increasing effect of the human activity on the marine ecosystem need to conceive new action plans with the aim to achieve a sustainable exploitation, and simultaneously the maintenance of fishing activity.

The proposal will look for tailored solutions of the trawl fishery to the new EU Common Fishery Policy (EU CFP), it will assign both environmental and economic value of bycatch, reducing discards and making advance in the fishery joint management.

3R FISH is a project launched within the framework of the European programme LIFE+ (Component 2: Environment Policy and Governance, 2007) to be implemented over the period 2009-2011

The main objective is to improve the quality of marine waters and seabed through the correct use of the devices and equipment that are handling in the fishing sector, together with the proper solid waste management and recycling from those activities.

It represents a key component in a strategy of fisheries and ports’ sustainable development, according to the European Union (EU) policy guidelines, as the Common Fisheries Policy, the Integrated Maritime Policy, the Integrated Coastal Zone Management and the Thematic Strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste.

The GESTINMER project aimed to develop an integrated system for the environmental management of the wastes produced by raft-cultured mussels.  The project anticipated to establish a system for extracting the sediments deposited under the mussel rafts and organise the selective sorting, collection and transportation of the wastes.

A system would also be developed to make use of the recycled wastes to restoredegraded soils in areas around mines.

The mussel produce would be involved at all stages of the project implementation in order to develop good working practices for waste management and for ecosystem preservation.

The objective of this project is to help companies of processed vegetables to making decision on the recovery of their waste and organic byproducts, clean technologies "a la carte".

This is going to build a software tool (Intelligent Decision Support, SDI), allowing employers to easily obtain an economically profitable and environmentally friendly products for their waste or organic.

This tool will have a large database of organic waste and by-products generated in processed vegetable companies in the Region of Murcia, and environmentally clean technologies able to exploit such waste. Will also extensive information on different technological possibilities of recovering organic wastes including economic and feasibility studies of the most interesting.

Food Waste Treatment is a collaboration project co-financed by the European Commission within the Life+ call for proposals, a programme that aims at fostering the environmental and competitive position of Europe by supporting cutting-edge solutions that protect the environment.

The purpose of this project is to develop an innovative concept for the sustainable management of both packaged and unpackaged food waste through an optimisation of the reception systems, de-packaging systems and technologies for separation of the organic and inorganic fractions.

To this end, new equipment for separation of food waste into two fractions will be devised to separate the organic matter from packagings, thus enabling to recover each fraction independently. The purpose is to offer a cheaper food waste management solution that is also more environmentally friendly.

DiscardLess will help provide the knowledge, tools and technologies as well as the involvement of the stakeholders to achieve the gradual elimination of discarding. These will be integrated into Discard Mitigation Strategies (DMS) proposing cost-effective solutions at all stages of the seafood supply chain.

The first focus is on preventing the unwanted catches from ever being caught. This will promote changes in gear using existing and innovative selectivity technology, and changes in fishing tactics based on fishers’ and scientists’ knowledge.

The second focus is on making best use of the unavoidable unwanted catch. We will detail technical and marketing innovations from the deck, through the supply chain to the final market, including monitoring, traceability and valorization components

PISCES (Partnerships Involving Stakeholders in the Celtic Sea Ecosystem) is a pioneering project linking people from the major sectors operating in the Celtic Sea.*

These stakeholders are working together to find a way to manage their activities using the ‘ecosystem approach'. By thinking about the complex interactions in this marine ecosystem (including living and non-living components and human activities), they've created their own practical guide to safeguard a future for all.

This innovative process is the first opportunity for people whose livelihoods depend on this region to translate EU policy into sustainable practice for a whole range of sectors spanning France, Ireland, England, Wales and Spain.

The FISH SCALE project aims to address the problem of over-exploitation of marine resources and fishing discards by promoting a more sustainable use of the sea and by improving the protection of marine biodiversity in the Mediterranean. The project will seek to change the attitudes of consumers by increasing their awareness of the importance of by-catch species.

The project will develop integrated communication and demonstration actions involving the whole supply chain of the fishing sector, together with the final consumers, so that they can become pro-active and discover mutual benefits in using currently neglected fish species.

The WASTE-C-CONTROL project aimed to reduce GHG emissions by developing a software tool to assess, monitor, control and report on the emissions resulting from the entire life cycle of solid waste management activities.

Using a systematic approach, different waste management options were assessed with regards to their GHG emissions, with the goal of enabling the project to identify procedures and practical tools within Local Action Plans (LAPs).

The project aimed to reduce GHG emissions in pilot studies in three regions in Greece: Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Western Macedonia, and Chania (Crete).

The sigAGROasesor project aims to develop and refine a series of Decision Support Tools (DST) for extensive agriculture. These tools will make it possible to create a web platform offering on-line services to farmers, directed at allowing them to work more efficiently, effectively and competitively yet always in line with environmental and social sustainability.

The sigAGROasesor on-line services platform comprises three pillars on which this expert system and decision-support tool are based:

       • The application of the latest GIS technologies in the management of geo-referenced information, to make use of soil variability, climate, crop condition, plant health alerts, and biotic and abiotic risks in the decision-making process.

       • The use of web-based Decision Support Tools (DST) to systematise the decision-making processes.

       • The use of Geo- referenced Traceability as a tool to manage the records of the Crop Management Units.

The Decision Support Tools (DST) will provide recommendations on the following issues: crop varieties, fertilization, irrigation, and risk of plagues, diseases and weeds.

The LIFE + AGROLCA MANAGER project aims at supporting Agrifood businesses, especially SMEs, to become more sustainable by managing the main environmental impacts associated to the use of resources and waste generation while minimizing environmental impact throughout Life Cycle of products.

This will be achieved by providing companies with a software tool adapted to the calculation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the Agrifood industry, which has a strong emphasis on processes associated with Best Available Techniques.

The project’s overall objective is to minimise unwanted catches by incentivising the adoption of fishing technologies and practices that reduce pre-harvest mortality and post-harvest discards, while avoiding damage to sensitive marine species and habitats.

The general approach will be to develop and demonstrate technical/technological and socioeconomic solutions that enable and incentivise the fisher to firstly avoid taking unwanted catch and, where this cannot be reasonably or practically achieved, to utilise it productively and sustainably, but without profit to the producer.

       • Strengthen capacity in low cost technology

       • Improve the preservation of existing fish supplies

       • Utilise waste and by-catch to produce value-added products

       • Develop an integrated quality management tool

       • Test the developed technology and quality management tools in different real third country conditions

The project turns around two main goals: to get a reduction of pollutants in the coastal fisheries of Granada (Spain) and achieve a change in the image that exists in public opinion about professionals of the artisanal fisheries sector; so that they become considered as active agents in the conservation of the marine environment as well as a solidarity sector with the most disadvantaged strata of society.

The Metabioresor project is co-financed by the European Union LIFE+ program (call 2008) and the Autonomous Community of Murcia (Spain). It aims to solve the environmental and economic problems caused by the disposal of livestock by-products and waste (pig manure, slaughterhouse residues…) and some municipal non-recyclable by-products and waste.

In order to do so, the project will demonstrate that energy can be efficiently recovered from these wastes, which become raw materials for energy production through a process that generates more energy than it consumes. Thus, this method can become a source of income for local or regional governments, large farms, farmer’s cooperatives and associations and waste managers.

The main action of the project is to develop a new industrial process that integrates various physicochemical processes: hydrolysis of various organic by-products, methane fermentation, digestates recovery and biomass combustion. All this is combined in a pilot plant that is capable of treating different types of waste and by-products.

At the same time, the project seeks to make active efforts to disseminate its technologies and procedures to facilitate their implementation in other areas.

Through its actions, the project Metabioresor aims to demonstrate the feasibility of this process and provide the technical and economic adjustments to its different phases allowing for the construction of full-scale plants. These plants, for example, could be used by municipalities, cooperatives and large pig farms for the management of waste and by-products. Return on investment would be ensured by the energy produced and the environmental problem would be resolved.

The scope of the project is to build a tool that will facilitate characterizing fish discards in the Northeast Cantabrian National fishing ground. The Atlas comprises a web tool to plot maps after selection of specie, fishing art and year.

The project employs scientific data recorded by observers working on-board commercial vessels who have collaborated with the Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO). The information is analyzed by the IEO to:

• Characterize fish discards along last years and plot spatio-temporal maps in the Northeast Cantabrian National fishing ground.
• Get an approach to main causes that may explain fish discards intensity and its impact in terms of biomass and biodiversity on the trawl and driftnet fishing fleet in the Northeast Cantabrian National fishing ground.

The Atlas allows to establish the bases for elaborating the fish discards plans and the long-term fishing plans, requirement of the new Common Fisheries Policy.

The main project outcomes are:

Atlas of fish discards of the trawl and driftnet fishing fleet in the Northeast Cantabrian National fishing ground.

Visual guide of demersal species of the continental shelf of Galicia and the Cantabrian Sea (Fishes).

Visual guide of demersal species of the continental shelf of Galicia and the Cantabrian Sea (Invertebrates).

Link to MAPDESCAR web viewer

The LIFE SEACAN project will foster the reduction of the environmental impact caused by the fish transforming industries by addressing the integrated management of nutrients and organic pollution for the achievement of the Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive requirements. The results attained for the study developed in the Galician coastline can be transferred to other coastal areas in Europe, where industrial activity is causing the same environmental problems that are being faced by Galician estuaries.

Objective: To reduce the environmental pressure exerted in the marine environment by the effluents generated by fish canneries located in coastal areas. LIFE SEACAN aims at demonstrating effective treatment systems that will allow to decrease the impact of the industrial activity on marine ecosystems. Environmental pressure will be reduced by application of biofilm-based effluent treatment systems and the effect of proposed treatment technology will be assessed by benthic ecosystem monitoring.