SOUL: Bio-based in Soil applications with Optimal biodegradation in their Ultimate Life
Programme: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2024
Duration: 48 months, September 2025 – August 2029
Partners: Fundación Aitiip (Coodinator), Novamont, Evoenzyme, CSIC, Moses Productos, Amorim Cork Solutions, Tenax, Sicor, Samco, Asetaga, IUNG, Aimplas, Normec OWS, Unibo, Holoss, Resoil, EBB, Bedoukian and Novamont Iberia.
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SOUL addresses the urgent challenge of plastic pollution where conventional plastics-widely used for mulching and other purposes-are poorly recycled, often improperly disposed of, and contribute to soil contamination, microplastics, and greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately harming soil health and fertility.
SOUL’s main objective is to develop and bring to market novel biobased and biodegradable-in-soil product solutions that can replace fossil-based plastics in agriculture, improving waste management, reducing carbon footprint, and preventing soil degradation, while ensuring compliance with regulations (e.g. microplastics) supporting the transition to a circular, sustainable plastics economy in Europe.
This challenge is being addressed through scaling up biobased material production, integrating enzymes for controlled biodegradation, validating products in real-world conditions (demosites in ES, PL, IT, PT and IE), ensuring safe biodegradation and soil health, designing for multiple end-of-life scenarios (reuse, recycling, composting), and engaging stakeholders for policy, standardization, and market uptake.
SOUL directly supports the European Green Deal, the Biodiversity and the Farm to Fork Strategies by reducing plastic pollution, improving soil health, and promoting sustainable, circular bioeconomy solutions in three sectors. SOUL does this by developing high renewable content, biodegradable-in-soil materials that outperform fossil-based and current bioplastics, thus contributing to the EU’s Zero Pollution Action Plan and Circular Economy Action Plan.
By ensuring safe biodegradation, reducing microplastics, and promoting eco-design, reuse, and recycling, SOUL addresses key EU policy goals for eliminating pollution, protecting biodiversity, and advancing sustainable agriculture and climate action.
In this project MOSES leads WP3, on Biobased Biodegradable-in-soil product solutions manufacturing, where it also produces and characterizes one of the products: injected clips. MOSES will also contribute to the validation of the products in the demo sites and its suitability for reuse.
The project is supported by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking and its members.
Grant Agreement nº 101214822, SOUL, HORIZON-JU-CBE-2024
