A consortium, of which Aimplas, the plastics technology centre headquartered in Valencia, Spain, is a member, isworking on the development of a new type of packaging for food and basic products for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Aimplas has now produced more than 2,000 sacks, intended for packaging supplies such as flour, dried beans and blankets, as part of the project, which is funded by Innovation Norway and led by the ICRC, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
The new sacks have a multilayer structure incorporating raffia fabric and containing additives to extend the life of the sacks by delaying degradation when exposed to environmental factors such as UV radiation.
The sacks for blankets also contain recycled material, enhancing their sustainability without affecting the material properties.
The project was launched in order to find alternatives and solutions for the sacks made of woven polypropylene that are normally used for packaging food and relief items.
Aimplas came up with a multilayer structure based on polypropylene enhanced with formulations to improve sack performance under extreme environmental conditions. Over 1,500 sacks containing wheat flour and dried beans. The sacks will be field-tested in a variety of environmental conditions n the challenging context of humanitarian work. in Cameroon, India and Turkey.
A further 500 sacks were produced using a different coating made with recycled material in which blankets were packaged.
Rafia Industrial S.A, part of the Spanish Armando Álvarez group, collaborated with AIimplas on the project, producing raffia sacks on an industrial scale and supplying the different types of bags to the specified locations.
Also participating in this project are AUST, a university in Bangladesh whose Textile Engineering Department will develop a jute sack with a biopolymer coating; and Giotto & SUPSI, a consortium made up of a Swiss consultancy and a Swiss university that is working on the development of a natural fibre-based material treated using a layer-by-layer approach.
The field tests will include a life cycle assessment comparing the conventional PP sacks with the alternatives developed within the scope of this project to analyse their performance in the field under as realistic conditions as possible.