Agrochemical Contamination and Ageing Effects on Greenhouse Plastic Film for Recycling

Plastic films used for crop protection have reached notable consumption all over Europe, as well as in the rest of the world. This phenomenon however poses a serious environmental problem connected with the impact on the sustainability of agricultural production and relevant plastic footprint. Mechanical recycling of agricultural plastics is a common technique, but limited by many factors, as the loss of mechanical properties of plastic film. This phenomenon, due to its ageing after being exposed to natural weather conditions, plays a crucial role, especially when aggravated by contamination with agrochemicals ordinarily used for crop health and pest management. This article reports the result of some laboratory tests on agricultural plastic film, artificially aged for different periods and contaminated with two different agrochemicals (anti-aphid or fungicide). These results show that the impact of agrochemicals on plastic film is considerable, since it worsens the ageing process of the plastic film, conducting a more rapid reduction in its mechanical properties—mostly, a faster reduction in the elongation at break below 50% of the corresponding value of the virgin plastic film. This phenomenon, other than reducing the working life of the plastic film, gives it a low potential for being transformed into a closed-loop recycled material when entering the recycling stage. The increase in the value of the detected Carbonyl Index (CI) confirms the tendency of the material to degrade rapidly when in contact with agrochemicals, hence indicating that it may be impossible to mechanically recycle it

Implementing a landscape information modelling (LIM) tool for planning leisure facilities and landscape protection.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is growing in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry. With the new strategy to mandate BIM, there is a need to identify its importance in architectural landscape design. It has the potential to challenge some of the limitations of designing, constructing and managing the built environment. Using BIM tools and applications, landscape analysis can be explored, developed and documented for design, planning and organization as well. This application, known as Landscape Information Modelling (LIM), may store object information such as: irrigation pipelines; areas allocated to specific plants; list of different plants involved in landscape projects; etc. Annotations used in landscape drawings would be accompanied by information attached to it. In this paper, a first application of LIM aimed to landscape protection has been implemented, so as to help in planning leisure facilities. Indeed, with many details involved, it can also be used to store data for landscape architects, who would easily develop and organize detailed information. Hence, with the ability for simulation and visualization, they should be able to produce detailed plans, walk-through animations and renderings for presentation, while exploring the scope and nature of work and making informed decision at early design stages

Agrochemical contamination and ageing effects on greenhouse plastic film for recycling

Polymers are employed in agriculture in several applications, the most efficient and fruitful of which is the protection of cultivations through the use of cover placed over plants while they are growing, providing protection from climatic factors, while at the same time increasing yield and/or extending the cropping season. Plastic films used for covering greenhouses, low and medium tunnel and for soil mulching have reached very notable consumptions all over Europe as well as the rest of the World, posing an important environmental problem connected with the impact that plastic material has on the sustainability of the agricultural production, whose environmental footprint may be deteriorated. Recycling agricultural plastics is a common technique, but it has not yet solved the problem of their re-use in the framework of a circular economy, since many factors are still anyway limiting the mechanical recycling of agricultural plastic materials. Among these limiting factors, the loss of mechanical properties of plastic film, due to its ageing after being exposed to direct solar radiation plays a crucial role, mostly if aggravated by the contamination with agrochemicals ordinarily used for crop health and pest management. In the present paper, the results of some laboratory tests on agricultural plastic film artificially aged for different periods contaminated with two different agrochemicals, are reported. These results have showed that the impact of agrochemicals on the plastic film is considerable already in the use-phase, so when entering the recycling stage, the material carries a low potential for being transformed into a closed-loop recycled material. The results in terms of Carbonyl Index (CI) have confirmed the tendency of the material to degrade rapidly when in contact with anti-aphid or fungicide contaminants. The samples sprayed with agrochemicals experience a considerable increase in CI values after 4 weeks of ageing, which makes impossible the mechanical recycling of this material

Ancient roads in Southern Italy: an hypothesis of requalification for the valorization of the rural landscape.

The rural heritage of a specific area represents the form that man has been able to give to its surrounding landscape. Over the centuries, in many European rural areas, roads have lost their traditional design motivation. Their requalification, in the framework of a sustainable development of rural areas, can be an important way for the protection of the landscape. Through the provision of new alternative activities, compatible with the particular nature of the environment, new opportunities for a sustainable preservation of the environment are possible. The “Francigena Way" is a combination of arterial roads dating back to the Roman era. The “Herculia Way" is part of the “Francigena Way" that was built in southern Italy. The aim of this research is to study a possible requalification of a part of the Herculia Way. Some ancient paths, known as “tratturi” (sheep-tracks) and small royal tratturi, in some measure still existing, have been identified and located on historical maps. One of these paths has been chosen for the present analysis; different surveys have allowed us to identify some rural buildings along its route, with a significant architectonical, historical and landscape value. The hypothesis of a structural and functional recovery through their maintenance and restoration will help the sustainable protection and enhancement of the landscape

Ancient roads in Southern Italy: an hypothesis of requalification for the valorization of the rural tourism.

The current rural heritage in a specific area represents the form that the man has been able to give to his surroundings. Over the centuries, in many European rural areas, the roads have lost their traditional design motivation. Their requalification in the framework of a sustainable development of the rural areas can be an important way for a sustainable development of rural tourism. It could pass through the valorization of route-based itineraries designed on some ancient roads, as those built in Europe by the Romans or during the middle-age for religious pilgrimages. The “Francigena Way" is a combination of arterial roads dating back to the roman epoch; the “Herculia Way" is a part of the “Francigena Way" that was built in Southern Italy. In this paper the possible requalification of a part of the Herculia Way has been hypotized. Some ancient paths, known as “tratturi” (sheep-tracks) and small royal tratturi, partly still existing, have been detected and located on historical maps, for a possible structural and functional restore, with the creation of a route that could be run along by walking, by bicycle or on horseback. This redevelopment could contribute to the protection and enhancement of the rural landscape elements examined, to the sustainable management of the environment and the enhancement of rural history and, more generally, to the promotion of rural tourism

The management of agricultural plastic packaging waste: a pilot experimentation in Southern Italy.

In the early sixties started the "green revolution", a phenomenal increase in agricultural productivity worldwide; with it a wide and extensive diffusion of plastic material and a massive use of agrochemicals made their entrance in agriculture. The plastics used at farm level are many and different: film, hard sheet, net, string, tube and agrochemical container. All these plastics become waste and the problem of their disposal cannot be ignored since several studies indicate that most of them are disposed in an illegally way (by burning, burying, dispersion). When the waste are agrochemical containers the problem is more acute because they aren’t often rinsed, resulting contaminated with chemical residues. In order to analyze the Italian current situation on this matter the Authors, in the framework of the “Agrochepack” Project, produced a mapping of Agricultural Plastic Packaging Waste (APPW) situation in an area of Southern Italy. This information was took as a basis for the design of a pilot plant that was realized in order to enable pilot tests of APPW disposal. The first indications, as a result of meetings with farmers, showed an increased attention towards the "environmental protection", as shown by the good results that were obtained within the Project

New secondary materials from recycled agricultural lastic films.

The extensive and expanding use of plastic material in the Italian agriculture for several diverse application results in increased accumulation of plastic waste in rural areas. The current practices adopted by Farmers consist, unfortunately, of a mismanagement of the plastic material that is abandoned or buried in open fields or burnt in a not controlled way, with heavy environmental consequences and a loss of material and energy. In the present paper, an analysis of the most technical efficient and economically feasible solutions for the management of agricultural plastic waste is given. These solutions represent main results of the European Project “Labelagriwaste” and they enable the analysis and planning of agricultural plastic waste fluxes, together with the possibility to investigate different development scenarios and to consider new planning strategies for the management of agricultural plastic waste

Planning the Integrated Management of Organic Waste Flows and Agricultural Residues for a Circular Economy

In the recent years, the production, management and disposal of both organic waste and agricultural residues has become significantly difficult in Italy, due to the lack of suitable facilities. Very often, indeed, within the different regions, there are no treatment plants for the organic fraction of municipal solid waste or agricultural residues treatment centres, so as to give them a second life in the perspective of a circular economy. The lack of proximity treatment centres, forces local administrations to send these flows to plants outside their territorial area, with a consequent increase for transport and treatment costs. This paper, with reference to the study area of the Matera municipality (Basilicata region - Southern Italy), taking into consideration the organic waste flows of non-domestic users from separate collection and agricultural residues - especially those coming from the wine production chain - provides a state-of-the-art analysis of the problems related to their collection, management and disposal. Subsequently, an alternative model feasibility study - called "proximity composting", aimed at a more sustainable management of these flows based on their “zero-kilometers treatment” – has been implemented. The results obtained have demonstrated that the proposed scenario is much more sustainable when compared to the current situation, both from an economic and environmental point of view. Indeed, thanks to the use of calculation tools, the economic (€/year) and environmental (Kg CO2 avoided/year) advantages, due to the save of transport and disposal of flows outside the region, have been quantified, with consequent reduction of waste tax for citizens (€/year). In addition, the implementation of maps using a Geographical Information System (GIS) has demonstrated a better optimization of the system. Finally, it was highlighted the social utility of the proposed model, because citizens become an active part in the process and self-produce soil fertilisers

GIScience and Historical Cartography for Evaluating Land Use Changes and Resulting Effects on Carbon Balance

Multi-chronological examination of territory using GIScience and historical cartography may reveal a strategic tool for investigating changes in land use and the surrounding landscape structure. In this framework, the soil plays a key role in ecosystem evolution, since it governs all the mechanisms at the basis of vegetal growth, as well as all components of the total environment contributing to the formation of a rural landscape, including the balance of carbon dioxide. The present study was developed using a GIS approach applied to historical maps and aims to assess the environmental impact of land-use change, with particular attention to its effects on agricultural soil and atmospheric carbon dioxide balance. Thanks to a comparison between historical cartographic maps of different periods, this geospatial approach has enabled the assessment of the evolution of the rural land of the study area in the municipality of Ruoti (Basilicata Region—Southern Italy). This area, indeed, has been affected by deep land-use transformations, mainly caused by agricultural activities, with a resulting impact on the atmospheric CO2 balance. These transformations have been analyzed and quantified in order to contribute to the understanding on how the changes in land use for agricultural purposes have led to unforeseen changes in the rural landscape, ecosystems and the environment. The results showed that the greatest changes in land use were caused by the abandonment of large rural areas, resulting in the expansion of urban areas, a decrease in orchard and arable land (about less 25%), and an increase in woodland (more than 30%). These changes have resulted in a doubling in soil carbon fixation value. The final results have therefore confirmed that historical cartography within a GIS approach may decisively offer information useful for more sustainable agricultural activities, so as to reduce their negative contribution to climate change

Experimental analysis on concrete blocks reinforced with Arundo donax fibres

Over the last decades, there has been growing attention in research and development on non-conventional building materials, such as vegetable fibres (e.g., flax, hemp, jute, etc.), to be used as eco-friendly materials in a wide range of applications in civil construction. The main reasons for this interest are related to the specific properties, price, and sustainability of natural fibres, which can be considered ‘green’ building materials. In this article, the tensile strength of a new type of fibre extracted from the stem of the Giant Reed Arundo donax L. has been investigated. First, these fibres, which widely grow in Mediterranean areas but are diffused worldwide as well have been extracted from the outer part of the plant stem. Then, in order to have an initial idea of their influence on the mechanical properties of concrete, some experimental bricks have been prepared, with the addition of different weight percentages of this vegetal fibre. Compression and tensile tests on the whole block have been performed to assess the mechanical properties of these bricks. Hence, the differences between concrete bricks without fibre and those reinforced with different weight percentages of natural fibre have been analysed, assessing their potential applications in bio-architecture