Sustainable management of waste in green nursery: the Tuscan experience

The green nursery sector in Europe involves 90,000 ha of cultivated land and 120,000 ha for the nurseries (MiPAAF, 2012), reaching 19.8 billions of Euros in 2011. Every year, nurseries produce waste about 4 kg of the residual biomass for each m2 of the potted plants cultivation. Nurseries waste make up a substantial quantity of organic materials e.g. wood biomass-substrate, which could be retrieved and valorized. With the expansion of potted plants cultivation and the resulting increase in discarded products a number of companies have begun to setting up solutions for the recovery of materials accumulated. Analysis led to the development of a separating system based on trunk vibration technology. To this end, two shaker yard were identified, developed and tested for the recovery of residual biomasses. With these solutions, green waste can be easily grasped by a clamp device able to convey strong vibrations to the trunk (or to the aerial part of the plant) to the point that the soil materials are detached from the vegetable portions.