14 institutions from eight countries are working in coordination in the European project Glaukos which, within the framework of the H2020 call, seeks circular solutions for the textile industry. The Ecotoxicology and Marine Pollution team, Ecotox, of the Coastal Ecology group of the Marine Research Center of the UVigo, is the only Spanish representative in this initiative which aims to develop biodegradable and biorecyclable textile fibers and coatings for fishing gear and clothing. The ultimate goal is to drastically reduce plastic pollution in the ocean, since “abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear represents approximately 27% of all marine litter found in European seas, around 11,000 tonnes per year that enter the marine environment each year. In addition to the remains of nets and other gear, there are synthetic fibres from which much of the clothing is made, which are also a main source of microfibre pollution in marine environments, as the use and wear of garments cause the fibres to end up in the sea.
ZSofia Kádár, global coordinator of the Glaukos project, explains that the project starts this month with “eagerness” to work on “one of the biggest problems that our society is facing with ocean pollution. According to recent studies, the concentration of marine microplastics has been greatly underestimated and plastic losses can only be mitigated if polymers are developed that are prone to recycling and biodegrading quickly and completely. Glaukos’ ambition is to pave the way for this transition and we have all the ingredients to succeed.”
The four-year project has a total budget of 4.8 million euros, of which the European Commission finances 4.1 million through the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), a public-private entity between the EU H2020 program and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC). The grant corresponding to UVigo is 411,500 euros. The consortium is coordinated by the Belgian entity Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant and includes companies, associations, clusters, research centers and universities from Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Italy and Turkey.
Bio-based textile fibers and coatings for the needs of the 21st century
The fourteen project partners will work over 48 months to redesign the complete life cycle of textiles used in fishing gear and clothing. The key, explain the Vigo researchers involved (Ricardo Beiras, Óscar Nieto and Beatriz Noya), “is the design of polymers to mitigate pollution caused by fiber fragments.” To this end, the project will be based on the “activatable biodegradability” of these new polymers, to increase the degradation rate of microplastics present in Glaukos materials, at least 100 times compared to conventional ones”. In parallel, bio-recycling processes will be developed to encourage the collection of textiles at the end of their useful life, thus reducing the pollution they cause. In addition, thanks to this initiative, it will also be possible to reduce the length of the supply chain “by scaling up a disruptive fermentation process that, from European bio-raw materials, allows the production of the base molecules whose combinations will then give rise to Glaukos polymers”. Thanks to this process, the bio-based content of Glaukos textile products will be able to be increased by at least 50%, they point out.
In addition, within the framework of Glaukos, ecological coatings for fishing gear with a higher bio-based content will also be developed and they will work to reconcile the product characteristics described above with technical performance and durability, thus ensuring the effective and long-term use of both textile products and fishing gear, significantly reducing their carbon and plastic footprint.
The project partners plan to bring their results to the end market, for which connections will be established with stakeholders to involve users in the clothing and fishing industries. It will also aim to increase consumer ecological awareness through, for example, marketing initiatives.
UVigo, focused on ‘end-of-life solutions’
Within the framework of the project, Ecotox researchers will focus on ‘end-of-life solutions’, a work package that is divided into two blocks and co-led by the UVigo team and the Jülich Research Center (FZJ), to work on biodegradability and bio-recycling.
Regarding biodegradability, the scientists explain that “field tests are a costly and time-consuming way to assess the biodegradability and ecotoxicity of textile products, such as fishing gear. Analyzing the release of microplastics and assessing their effect on ecosystems is particularly difficult”. To advance in this field, Ecotox has developed a method to accelerate the release of microplastics from fishing gear, which allows the biodegradability and ecotoxicity of microplastics to be assessed in the laboratory and in mesocosms. In this sense, they recall that “the vast majority of additives and ecological coatings for fishing gear and textiles are derived from petroleum, with one of the final objectives of the Glaukos project being to produce coatings with a minimum biobased content of 30%, which would represent a major advance in this field”.
Dende Ecotox, grupo cofinanciado con cargo ao Programa Operativo FEDER/FSE Galicia 2014-2020, avaliarán a ecotoxicidade dos ingredientes para guiar a selección dos recubrimentos máis ecolóxicos, xa que investigacións recentes realizadas polo grupo da UVigo demostraron que “moitos aditivos poliméricos utilizados durante o proceso de polimerización e composición son tóxicos para os ecosistemas mariños”. Finalmente, avanzarase no desenvolvemento e integración de métodos para avaliar a biodegradabilidade e ecotoxicidade dos microplásticos en medios acuáticos e mariños de cara á estandarización dos mesmos.
Source: DUVI
