📋 Tender Overview
Start Date: 01/06/2023
End Date: 31/05/2028
Total Eligible Budget: 2,110,409 €
EU Contribution: 1,264,369 €
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Expansion of human activity in e-commerce connected with cardboard box shipping has resulted in exponential increase of paper waste. At the same time fast growing building construction industry generates more rock dust and slurry waste. Climate change and soil degradation are other important issues for people living in the Anthropocene epoch. The main objective of the SoilLifeBoats will be to improve soil condition, mineral structure and carbon contents through agricultural and horticultural use of composite rock-cellulose pellets (RCP). RCP pellets as a new product will be completely and exclusively made from unusable for paper recycling cellulose short-fibres waste and rocks dust-slurry waste. RCP when buried in soil would result additionally on soil mesofauna support, longer carbon sequestration and atmospheric carbon dioxide removal via enhanced rock weathering. The project will reduce the amount of waste in the circulation. Acronym SoilLifeBoats came from observations on mesofauna's great variety living inside RCP buried in soil especially during dry periods and in arid soils. Soil microorganisms under water stress migrate to the pellets which work as a Life boats which help them to survive critical time during the dry periods.
