Circular Economy: valorisation of residual straw for the production of innovative, bio-based, compostable and biodegradable packaging.

For some years we have witnessed a growing crisis in the cereal sector in the Marche Region due to the increase in production costs and the drop in market prices at the origin (20 € / q for durum wheat against a survival price of at least 40 € / q). The collapse of prices for grain due to market speculation with large quantities of imported grain occurs even more for the straw product, considered a waste material of the supply chain. The scarce re-use for agronomic and zootechnical needs has determined a contraction of the straw market with fluctuating economic prices, strengthened by modest prospects of convenience in the harvest and post-harvest phases. The alternative uses of straw to those relating to the agro-livestock sector currently concern the use of straw as a building material, the use of straw for energy purposes to produce and cogenerate heat. Straw can also be used for energy purposes in different supply chains, for example for the production of ethanol (2nd generation biofuel). From an environmental point of view, the use of straw with destruction, for example for the production of energy, involves the release of CO2 into the atmosphere and therefore the loss of its "Carbon Sink" value: 1.00 ton of straw produces, when it burns , about 1.35 tons of CO2 (Behzad Sodagar et al., 2011) that is more than its own weight as it removes oxygen from the atmosphere. RICREA is an innovation project that proposes an alternative and experimental solution for the production of packaging for industrial products in various commercial sectors.