The EU generated 59.2 million tonnes of food waste in 2022, of which 19% came from food manufacturing and beverages, including former food staffs (products originally made for human consumption that are no longer suitable for sale). Many of the most challenging streams, those with complex packaging or sticky compositions, could not previously be recovered at an industrial scale and were discarded. The LIFE F3 project, co-financed by the LIFE Programme and carried out by the Belgian company Trotec NV, set out to change that.
Implemented at Trotec NV’s plants in Veurne (Belgium) and Albon (France), the project addressed two core technical challenges: 1) unpacking a wide variety of product types at industrial speed while separating packaging materials by category, and 2) applying safe thermal treatment to products such as chocolates and caramel-based confectionery that do not behave like conventional feed raw materials under heat.
LIFE F3’s objectives:
- Demonstrate industrial-scale unpacking technology capable of handling a wide variety of packaged former foodstuff streams
- Separate packaging materials by type (aluminium, cardboard, paper, plastic) to enable appropriate recycling of each stream
- Demonstrate safe thermal treatment processes for complex and sticky food compositions
- Add 50,000 tonnes of previously unrecoverable former foodstuffs to the circular economy, every year
- Reduce the carbon footprint and land use associated with conventional animal feed production
Results achieved:
- 53,000 tonnes of former foodstuff added to the circular economy per year, exceeding the original target of 50,000 tonnes
- Reduced carbon footprint of the circular feed ingredient equal to 120 kg CO2 per tonne, compared to 700 kg CO2 per tonne for conventional primary raw materials
- More than 9,000 hectares of agricultural land freed up
- Reduced dependence on imported primary raw materials
- Packaging materials separated by type and directed to appropriate recycling streams
- New production lines for pet food opened at the Veurne plant
- Third factory under construction in Przasnysz, Poland
- Active commercial discussions under way in Spain
LIFE F3 developed technologies to convert unsellable packaged food into animal feed. Close-to-market support helped define its commercialisation strategy, with Poland and Spain identified as priority markets.
Quote from the Coordinating Beneficiary:
Sigrid Pauwelyn, Project Director
“The close-to-market support shaped how we approached commercialisation. The market study moved us from a general sense of widespread European demand to a structured ranking of target geographies most suited for expansion using the technology developed during the LIFE project. Concrete outcomes traceable to this period include the ongoing construction of our third factory in Poland, which will apply the technology developed during the LIFE project. In parallel, active commercial discussions are happening in Spain."
- Project locations
- Belgium
- Project website
- LIFE F3