FEDIT-AITIIP – Obtaining fabrics applicable to footwear from mushrooms
EARTO Innovation Awards 2021 – Impact Delivered Category
This RD&I project arises from the increasing environmental awareness on the part of customers. In this case, the innovative proposal focuses on the use of waste and its conversion into high-value resources, in order to extend the life cycle of the product. La Rioja is the leading mushroom-producing region, with 40.000 t/year, generating a cost of €200.000 in terms of its management.
Innovation: The progress achieved has allowed us to obtain an innovative biomaterial, developed from a 40% post-culture substrate from mushrooms, SPCH, allowing us to practically halve the consumption of virgin textile fiber. For this purpose, waste from the Pleurotus mushroom substrate was selected and adapted, since its bioactive compounds have a marked antimicrobial activity. These wastes were mixed with hemp and PET fibers to produce a textile biomaterial.
Impact Delivered: Its antifungal and antibacterial particularity was the fundamental value that the entrepreneur demanded to satisfy the demand of footwear users; the end customer would thus see the need to control, prevent and/or mitigate the growth of bacteria in the foot satisfied. In addition, it has an economic effect on mushroom growers who previously had to assume a cost for the management of SPCH, since the production itself has a large amount of this waste associated with it.
© Photos Credit: Fedit
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