Gruppo Boero, Italian leader in painting products, and IIT - Italian Institute of Technology, have signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for the development and marketing of eco-friendly paint products that employ bioplastic microparticles deriving from fruit and vegetable waste.
The agreement is the result of the collaboration between the two companies, started two years ago with the Green Paints project, aimed at producing more sustainable products.
Bioplastics of vegetable origin have been tested as a possible alternative to the traditional pigments used in the formulation of interior paints. In particular, the microparticles coming from white corn starch have been studied as a possible alternative to the traditional white and matting pigment for the creation of white-neutral paints, then painted with different colours using traditional tinting.
With bioplastics coming from orange and cocoa waste, coloured paints (Orange Yellow and Cocoa Brown) were made using the natural pigments of the vegetable waste.
The patent developed in the IIT laboratory of Smart Materials (led by Athanassia Athanassiou) seems to have a wide potential for application. Concretely, 100 g of bioplastic derived from dried plant residue (from the processing of the food industry) are needed to make 1 kg of coating product. As for one kilo of product, the peels of three oranges will be necessary.
Experimental paints are currently being tested at Boero's Research Center. As part of the agreement, the company is providing IIT a development plan, detailing the activities that will allow the products covered by the license to be brought onto the market.