The objectives of the project are to determine and evaluate:
- the quality of the animal feed produced by the pilot-scale unit, in relation to the hotels’ source separation system of the generated waste and the proposed drying/ pasteurising methodology, based on solar drying technology,
- the various technical aspects of the proposed process.
The main components of the process are:
- the non-invasive separate collection with a refrigerated vehicle,
- hand sorting and removal of non-food wastes,
- grinding,
- solar drying/ pasteurising of the mixed food, and
- mixing with other animal feed (e.g. corn) to achieve high-quality standards,
- the financial, marketing and environmental parameters related to the process and product (from the source to the shelf).
- the commercial viability of full-scale units, including the approach of the customers/ end-users towards the new feed, will be assessed. Part of the environmental evaluation will be the determination of the environmental footprint of the food residues converted to animal feed,
- the appropriate parameters for scale-up, dissemination, replicability and transferability processes, towards a full-scale facility, and
- the policy parameters related to the process, such as the potential role in waste minimisation and reuse of non-recyclable wastes (part of an integrated solid wastes management scheme), as well as the Roadmap to a Resources-Efficient EU.