Trays for cheeses and bottles for milk are the first 100% biodegradable and compostable bioplastic food product containers made by ENEA in collaboration with the start-up company from the Puglia region, EggPlant, thanks to the BIOCOSÌ project. Already the winner of the “Agrifoodmaker 2019” award (of the Ministry of the Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies, together with other players) for Innovation in the agriculture and food sector, the BIOCOSÌ project has enabled final development of an innovative process that aims to recycle approx. 80% of the waste materials generated by industrial butter and cheese production − through separate recovery of all whey components (serum proteins / peptides, lactose, mineral salts and ultrapure water) − thus producing bioplastics for food preservation. This eco-innovative process leads to production cost cuts of approx. 23% per unit, while tackling the ‘plastics’ problem. Up to the present, bioplastics account for approx. 1% of the 300 million tons of plastics produced each year in Europe. European Bioplastics estimates that demand will grow by 50% in the medium-term future, from around 4.2 million tons in 2016 to 6.1 million tons in 2021.