| Despite the economic importance of the agro-food sector, during the last European Framework Programmes, there has not been a global European vision addressing the environmental problems arising from agro-food waste. AWARENET is the first network for agro-food waste prevention, minimisation and recovery. The innovation of AWARENET proposal is that it will integrate the vision of the agro-food industrial waste problem from three different and critical points of view: regulatory issues, technology and market, with the final objective of proposing a global R&D European strategy for agro-food industrial waste. The European environmental regulations and the current best practices for minimisation and "valorisation" of wastes will be compiled and checked all over Europe. The network activities will help the European agro-food industries to describe simple tools for wastes prevention, minimisation and recovery. A "white book" will be prepared as a manual for dissemination. AWARENET will identify the market opportunities for "valorised" products from agro-food waste and define the R&D needs for agro-food waste. |