the italian company is putting waste hazlenut shells to practical use, while in turkey pistachio nutshells could fire up a new ecocity ferrero makes 180m kg of its nutella spread each year, giving it plenty of hazelnut shells to put to practical use. photograph petr &scarontpánekalamynut producers around the world send tonnes of nut shells to landfill each year. but a few innovative projects suggest they might be binning a valuable resource.hazelenutsferrero, the largest chocolate producer in the world, has come up with a particularly neat use for its hazelnut shells. the italian company is the world&rsquos biggest buyer of hazelnuts, using 25 of the world&rsquos supply and making 180m kg of its nutella spread each year, according to the italian trade agency. as a result, it has plenty of hazelnut shells to play with.&ldquowe have access to large amounts of residual byproducts which we realised could be used constructively,&rdquo said a project coordinator at ferrero. the company&rsquos idea is to use the nuts&rsquo natural wrapping to create packaging for its chocolates.ferrero has teamed up with renewable packaging company stora enso, and pts, a german research institute, to develop the socalled ecopaper, as part of a &euro1.2m £870m project , which is 50 funded by the european union.miguel sánchez, mill manager at stora enso says that visually there is no way to tell a hazelnut board apart from regular carton board. he explains&ldquowe are still experimenting on the ideal mixture of nutshell fibres in the pulp, but so far it works well for stiffness and bulk. the hazelnut fibres are used in the board&rsquos middle layer and have been tested for allergy aspects without any problems.&rdquothe project is in an experimental, preindustrial phase that ends this year but sánchez says that in the future we will be able to buy chocolate with hazelnuts wrapped in hazelnut board. &ldquowe are even making tests with cocoa skin as a raw material for fibre in pulp, but that is still in a very early stage.&rdquocashew nutsin japan, the technology firm nec is experimenting with using cashew nut shells to create a durable bioplastic. until recently, most bioplastics have been created from starch, taken from plants such as corn. but as concern grows about the land needed to feed the world&rsquos population, researchers are looking for nonedible raw materials to use in manufacturing.nec is focusing on cellulose, the principal component of cashew nut shells. this is an abundant resource, with supply peaking at 80bn tonnes a year compared with the annual supply of starch of just 1.4bn tonnes annually. still in the laboratory stage, the bioplastic is strong, heat resistant and water resistant, meaning it can be used for electronic devices. dr masatoshi iji, the research fellow who has led nec&rsquos product development in this area, says it could be used to make the casings for computers, petrol pumps and in car interiors.production of the bioplastic is relatively energy efficient. nec estimates that producing 1kg of its plastic generates 1.3kg of co2. iji says, &ldquothe consumption energy of its production is about half when compared with current plastics for durable products and therefore, when it replaces them, a large amount of energy and co2 generation will be reduced more than 10m tonnes of co2.&rdquoa more common use of cashew nut shells is as a biofuel. with their high energy content, nut shells are an obvious source of energy.peaunuts and almondsin parts of subsaharan africa and india where peanuts are a major crop, peanut shells are used as a solid biofuel. combined with tar or tapioca paste, the shells are used as a regular fuel in coalburning boilers and domestic coal burning stoves. similarly, a company in spain uses almond shells to develop briquettes for biomass boilers.macadamia nutsin australia, one macadamia nut producer is burning its shell waste on a larger scale. suncoast gold macadamias is one of the world&rsquos largest processors of macadamia nuts, processing 6,000 tonnes of nuts a year, which generates around 4,000 tonnes of shell waste.following a a3m £1.6m investment in a wastetoenergy plant, it now burns that waste to produce 9,500 megawatt hours mwh of renewable energy. the processing plant uses around 1,400mwh of that per year and sells the rest back to the grid. chief executive jim twentyman says the project has a range of more subtle benefits beyond the cost savings. &ldquowhile the sugar industry has been cogenerating for some time this is the first time the macadamia industry has generated power in this way. it&rsquos a marketing plus for suncoast gold macadamias.&rdquopistachio nutsthey litter the floors of spanish bars but pistachio shells could soon be used as an abundant source of renewable energy. turkey &ndash the world&rsquos third biggest producer of pistachios behind iran and the us &ndash is developing plans to burn pistachio shells to heat its first ecocity.the planned city, which is still awaiting approval, will be built at the heart of turkey&rsquos pistachio producing region and will house some 200,000 people. the city will use a variety of energysaving systems, such as green roofs, solar power, innovative waste management and rainwater collection. muftuoglu gulec, a green building expert for the municipality, said &ldquowhen you plan such environmentfriendly systems, you take a look at natural resources you have. if the region was abundant in wind power, we would utilise wind energy.&rdquothe know your nuts series is funded by olam. all content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled &lsquobrought to you by&rsquo. find out more here.join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. become a gsb member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox. 
