The EcosMed Social Cooperative has gained one out of the three special mentions awarded as part of the “Sicily Innovation Award” sponsored by the Sicily Region’s Department of Productive Activities and Digitrend, thanks to the work it is carrying out, in collaboration with several partners including the MeSSInA Foundation, creating in Roccavaldina a hub for bioplastics made from the beer spent grains of the Messina Brewery.  A work also developed thanks to LIFE RESTART, a project co-financed by the EU under the LIFE Program. 

The event was held Friday, Nov. 24, in Palermo and resulted in the awarding to three particularly innovative companies and special mention of as many projects.

The HUB so-called “olivettian” because the semi-industrial production of the new bioplastics, after at least two years of research by UNIME’s Department of Engineering and Crossing Srl, a spin-off of the Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems of Ca Foscari Di Venezia University, does not aim only at profit – which, moreover, will be reinvested in the sustainable development of the territory – but at “making community.”

In addition to the “Factory,” which will start in early 2024, Roccavaldina will be home to a research center on biomaterials, pollution and climate change and a Fab Lab for the design and development of prototypes of bioplastic items. In addition, strongly innovation-oriented companies coming from other areas will be based here, and a process of training local start-up and existing companies has already developed and will be further developed.

The production of the new bioplastics will lead to the creation of new jobs, some of them for the most fragile segments of the local population.

The special mention

The mention to EcosMed was given by the Sicily Journalists Order “for having taken the message of ecological transition, repeatedly reiterated over the years by the European Union, and having brought it to Sicily, in conjunction with the revival of a historic Messina company in the agri-food industry.”

The Sicily Innovation Award was created to enhance and promote the work of Sicilian companies. Innovation is not only technology, it can take different forms, including strategic, product and organizational innovation.

The Sicily Innovation Award, since its first edition, has rewarded projects and ideas that, starting with the introduction of innovations in production processes, organizational models, human resource management and land management, have contributed improving quality of life and the economic and social growth in Sicily.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.