EcoPlastiC at the European Researchers Night 2023

The European Researchers' Night is a Europe-wide public event, which displays the diversity of science and its impact on citizens' daily lives in fun and inspiring ways. In 2023, the event took place in 26 countries counting more than 1.5 million visitors and our partners from Portugal (NOVA) and Serbia (IMGGE) took part.

On Friday, 29 September 2023, Cristiana A. V. Torres presented the EcoPlastiC project in Lisbon, Portugal as part of the exhibition “From wastes to biopolymers”:

Cristiana A. V. Torres presenting the EcoPlastiC project

Bacteria have the capacity to produce biodegradable plastic and many other biopolymers with interesting applications in several industries, such as pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic, biomedical, packaging industries, etc. Furthermore, they can produce these biopolymers from agro-industrial wastes, which would otherwise need to be treated or incinerated, or will finished undertreated. This activity will explain the process by which these biopolymers are produced, different examples of biopolymers, and their applications will be showed.

On Saturday, 30 September 2023, Marija Nenadovic, Vukasin Jankovic and Milica Ciric presented the EcoPlastiC project in Belgrade, Serbia as part of the exhibition “Can microbes mend the landfills’ plastic blend?”:

The stall of the exhibition “Can microbes mend the landfills’ plastic blend?”

Have you already had the opportunity to research concepts such as plastic recycling or the production and application of bioplastics, as well as the role of microorganisms in the process of breaking down plastic waste? Our setup is here to bring you closer to these exciting principles and present various aspects of the international BioICEP and EcoPlastiC projects. Through a series of activities, we will reveal to you the details of mechanical processing of plastic waste, biological treatment of plastic waste, toxicity research of various molecules and bioplastic production techniques. And then... the direction under the microscope! We will breathe life into this concept using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans and explore bioplastics as an amazing material of the future. We invite you to join us and learn together how science can transform the way we look at plastic and its impact on the environment.