A hit of recent years. That’s what we can say about microgreens – young shoots of vegetables, herbs and legumes. They usually contain 5 times more nutrients than adult vegetables. Their large-scale cultivation is facilitated by special microgreens farms from the Czech company MoraviaLab
COMPANY MoraviaLab s.r.o
COUNTRY Czech Republic
SECTOR Controlled Environment Agriculture
Circular Business Model Circular product design, Product life extension, Resource efficiency
CHALLENGE
Microgreens — young shoots of vegetables, herbs and legumes, typically containing around five times more nutrients than the mature vegetable — have become one of the growth categories of recent years. MoraviaLab builds the farms that make growing them at scale practical: modular units sized for restaurants, canteens and catering companies, watered aeroponically rather than hydroponically. Instead of submerging the roots, the system irrigates them with a water mist, which requires only two centimetres of standing water to generate. The result is lower running costs and substantially lower water consumption than conventional hydroponic systems.
The growing pots themselves were the weak point. Each farm holds 120 plants: four floors of 30 growing squares inserted into a 3D-printed grid. The squares sit in a permanently humid environment and are handled, emptied and refilled after every harvest, so a pot that cannot survive repeated cycles becomes a consumable — a steady stream of discarded plastic running against the sustainability case for the farm as a whole. MoraviaLab set a minimum requirement of 100 growing cycles per pot. Producing the squares on a 3D printer, which the company also tested, cost roughly €3 per unit and did not scale.
SOLUTION
MoraviaLab applied to the European Up2Circ programme in 2025, with JIC as one of the programme partners, to develop a recyclable growing pot that would meet the 100-cycle durability target at a viable unit cost.
The original design direction was compostable natural materials. Testing showed this did not work: in the constant humidity of an aeroponic farm, pots made from compostable materials disintegrated well before reaching the required number of cycles. The company therefore changed strategy, moving the circular gain from biodegradability at end of life to reuse during the product’s life, and focused on materials that were durable first and recyclable second.
After a series of tests, MoraviaLab selected polypropylene and PET-G, the material used for PET bottles. Both carry the necessary certifications, are harmless to health in food-contact use, and can be recycled. Pots made from either material showed no cracks, deformations or other defects after 100 growing cycles, and both are dishwasher-safe — a practical requirement in professional kitchens, and one that matters at the VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava canteen, where a MoraviaLab farm is in use.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY STRATEGIES/ BUSINESS MODEL IMPLEMENTED
The project applied circular economy principles as follows:
– Narrowing resource loops: aeroponic irrigation reduces water consumption to the two centimetres needed to generate mist, and switching from 3D printing to moulded polypropylene and PET-G removes the material and energy overhead of additive production for a high-volume component.
– Slowing resource loops: the growing square was redesigned from a consumable into a durable component, validated to at least 100 growing cycles with no visible degradation. A single pot now does the work that would otherwise require repeated replacement, and dishwasher compatibility means cleaning between cycles does not shorten its life.
– Closing resource loops: polypropylene and PET-G are both established recyclate streams, so the pots can be recovered and recycled at end of life rather than landfilled. The abandoned compostable route is instructive here — in a permanently humid application, a material designed to break down cannot deliver the reuse that carries most of the environmental benefit.
IMPACT
Environmentally, the gain comes from avoided replacement. A pot validated for 100 growing cycles displaces the equivalent stream of short-lived alternatives, and the system’s 120 pots are now durable assets rather than recurring waste. The aeroponic method underpinning the farm keeps water use to a fraction of hydroponic equivalents. The work contributes directly to SDG 12.
Commercially, the change transformed the unit economics. A 3D-printed growing square cost around €3; squares in polypropylene or PET-G cost between €0.60 and €0.80. Across one growing system of 120 pots, that is a saving of at least €300, applied to every system the company sells.
Socially, the modularity of the farms makes controlled-environment growing accessible to restaurants, canteens and catering operators rather than only to specialist producers, with the VŠB – TUO canteen as a working reference installation. MoraviaLab is also working to spread awareness of sustainable food production beyond Europe. In parts of Africa, fruit and vegetables are commonly stored in damp cellars, where something as simple as a humidity sensor giving early warning that intervention is needed would prevent significant losses. The company is currently involved in further projects addressing problems of this kind.
KEY TAKEAWAY
MoraviaLab met the goals it set for itself in the Up2Circ project: a growing pot that lasts at least 100 cycles, is recyclable and food-safe, and costs roughly a quarter of the 3D-printed version it replaces.
The main lesson is that compostable and circular are not synonyms. The intuitive choice — a natural, compostable material — failed on the only criterion that mattered in this application, because a component that spends its working life in mist has to resist moisture, not yield to it. The environmental benefit ultimately came from durability and recyclability rather than from biodegradation, and the switch improved the economics at the same time. Where a component is reused rather than consumed, designing for a long service life is the circular decision.