Abstract of the request

Французское предприятие, специализирующееся в области декоративного садоводства и ландшафтной архитектуры, ищет новые биоразлагаемые пленки/покрытия для мульчирования. Компания заинтересована в технической кооперации по испытанию эффективности таких новых материалов.

Description of the request

The French landscape SME, specialized in roads surroundings plantation and landscaping looking for biodegradable mulching film or mulching cover that may succeed in:
- impeding efficiently weed growth,
- continue this effect during 2 years (at least, letting rain water cross the mulching cover so that the underneath soil is evenly moistured;
- if it is a biodegradable plastic film, resisting the weed capacity in tearing the film and impeding light penetration so that underneath weeds do not go on growing;
- If the cover is made out of organic fibers, it should not be too heavy, allowing an easy implementation.

They plant annually some 300 000 trees, most of them young and small, some older and bigger, and create some 200 hectares of lawn (or flowered meadows).
They use mainly plastic non degradable mulching woven films, very practical to put in place, and efficient against weeds, but not degradable in natural environment, (not recyclable in France).
Most of their customers would like to avoid non degradable plastic mulching film they still mainly use.
They have already used a variety of different bio degradable films (made out of corn grain) and covers (made out of wood fiber, hemp fiber, wooven tissue wastes. They usually have 3 main inconveniences:
- they are very heavy per square meters, and expensive to implement
- they are not lasting enough time, and let weeds grow through from the end of the first year of use, and finally discarding from the second year of use
- if it is a (plastic like) film, they are not solid enough, allowing the weeds to pass through and discard them
- if it is a fiber cover, they are too thick and tight, turning into a impermeable cover to rain, and letting the underneath soil very dry

Technical Specifications/Specific technical requirements of the request

They would like to experiment and buy mulching films or mulching covers that have none of these inconveniences. The new material should answer to these specifications:
- being light and easy to set up in place,
- may control efficiently weeds for 2 or 3 years at last,
- letting rain water through and allowing good moisturing of soil underneath.
Market applications, comments

Landscape gardener

Cooperation details

Type of collaboration sought	Испытание новых применений
Type of partner sought	mulching film provider, plastic, new kind of organic fiber processor, other technologies etc
Specific area of activity of the partner	film or cover industry, chemical or bio laboratory
Tasks to be performed	provide new materials