Description: It is essential to create awareness about bio-based products among the youngest people, who will be the citizens of the future, and even more, among the children whose ethics are being formed at this age. Giving them a better understanding of bioeconomy and bio-based products is key to the future of these disciplines, and their way of dealing with waste in homes, or when demanding non-fossil-based products. We therefore believe that it is essential to reach out to schoolchildren to give them the necessary knowledge about bio-based products and to show them how important they are in terms of sustainability. The main activity of the event was to generate an interactive workshop with the students teaching them what are the processes and results of biotechnology to obtain better products. This interactive workshop used bio-based products, explaining their origin, where they have been obtained, why these products are necessary, bringing this discipline in a friendly and easy way to understand. We also had a mural where key questions were asked and children were able to expose their knowledge, what they had learned, how they defined bioeconomy and bio-based products, if they believed that bio-based products are important for their future, if they could recognize them in a supermarket, if they preferred them to others, how they would communicate, etc. The final objective was to bring bio-based products closer to the youngest ones, and to generate awareness around them, to see them as a more sustainable product and equal in quality than those they already know, and to see the need to use these products ahead of those that are fossil-based.

Application sectors:

Cleaning and hygiene, personal care and cosmetics, health and biomedical

Textile products, clothing, sports and toys

Food packaging, disposable tablewear

Biofuels and bioenergy

Building, construction and restoration, paintings, decorations and furniture

Nutraceuticals, environmental bioregulation and biological sensors

Other

Topics of discussion:

Consumers’ awareness and information, trust building

Challenges:

B2 – Changes in purchase habits

B3 – Increase the Adoption