Plastic pollution constitutes a major global issue, which has been progressively deteriorating and creating a series of environmental, economic, health and aesthetic ramifications. Given the increasing use of plastics in a variety of agricultural works during the recent decades, the agricultural sector, despite not being the most deleterious one, seems to be adding insult to injury. Indeed, the use of plastics in agriculture is especially widespread, since they are utilized in a plethora of agricultural applications. As it can be easily inferred, this worsening situation also affects Greece, a country lacking agri-plastic waste management systems, with a large percentage of it ending up on land or in the sea and being illegally incinerated hence, causing detrimental environmental, but not limited to, consequences. Therefore, there is an imperative need to design, develop and implement a system for the detection, tracking, recovery and, if possible, energy utilization or safe disposal of agri-plastics, with a view to tackling agri-plastic waste pollution and contributing to the sector’s harmonization with sustainability and circular economy principles.
BLOCK AGROWASTE attempts to accommodate this need by developing a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly and economically viable innovative agri-plastic waste management system. The project will focus on the development of a decentralized platform based on Blockchain technology, providing continuous communication between contract farmers and collectors of agri-plastic waste. In particular, the objective of the project is to create a highly reliable information network for all stakeholders, through which, farmers will be able to inform the collectors about the type, quantity, date of placement and geographical location of agri-plastics in their greenhouses, using an online distributed ledger. At a later stage and after the end of the useful/functional service life of the agri-plastics, the registered quantity will be able to be declared available for recycling, while the collectors will be notified accordingly through a specially designed mobile application. The latter will collect the waste and transport it to suitable units for further processing, recycling and energy utilization, thus successfully completing its management cycle. The successful implementation of the project will lead to the development of an effective agri-plastic waste management system, capable of enhancing the traceability of agri-plastics at the end of their useful life and their final use as waste, i.e. their separation by type and gathering by farmers, their collection by non-hazardous waste collection companies, and finally, their utilization by waste-to-energy companies.

PI: Prof. Stavros Ponis