Bio-based materials from Po River organic waste: a Do It Yourself design.

Freshwater ecosystems are increasingly affected by the raise of temperatures in urban areas that causes the proliferation of invasive aquatic vegetation, such as the case of Elodea nuttalii in the Po River in Turin (Italy). Mechanical eradication is the most efficient method of environmental control, but it produces large amounts of plant biomass treated as organic waste. This study focuses on investigating opportunities to use aquatic plant biomass as raw material to produce bio-based materials to move towards the replacement of fossil-based plastics. A preliminary analysis led to develop almost 31 procedures and the study was performed in laboratory by Do-It-Yourself approach as method to explore potentialities offered by aquatic plant biomass. Material Tinkering was then adopted as method to preliminary evaluate samples of bio-based materials. Some samples showed promising characteristics and properties that suggest interesting real-scale applications in the perspective of circular economy such as in footwear industry.