Assobibe: no to reuse, boom in costs for new bottles
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“I am now back from the inauguration of the new Coca Cola Hbc plant in Gaglianico, in the Biella area: 30 million euros invested in vain, if the new European regulation on the reuse of packaging passes”. Giangiacomo Pierini speaks as president of Assobibe, the soft drinks sector that in Italy generates 4.9 billion euros every year from raw material to sale. The new Piedmontese factory will transform up to 30 thousand tons of Pet per year into new bottles in 100% recycled Pet, allowing a 70% saving in CO2 emissions.
Coca Cola Hbc is not the only one to focus on sustainability: “In Italy, 100% of the beverage industries have invested in recycling – says Pierini – in the first place the weight of the bottles has been more than halved: move to reuse, as they would like doing the EU would now require to double the weight of the plastic bottles currently on the market. We have also invested in corks, because by 2024 Brussels is asking us that they remain attached to the bottle even open: if the new regulation passes, all these investments would be thrown away ”.
A recent report commissioned to Pwc estimates the impact of the reuse regulation on the entire European beverage industry at 18.7 billion euros: 12.5 billion would be the investments necessary to equip itself with new technologies, for example those for the sanitation of bottles to be refilled, the rest would be the extra production costs. If the philosophy of reuse were to win over that of recycling, Pwc always calculates, it would be necessary to have trucks 35% larger for deliveries, 30% larger warehouses for storage, 50% slower bottling lines. “64% of our companies are SMEs – says Pierini – how can they support investments of this kind?”.
To have bet on reuse, rather than on the recycling chain, in Europe it was only Germany and partly Sweden, “but also in Germany today reuse is decreasing – says Pierini – in Italy it has historically been chosen to favor recycling , and in particular that of plastic, because it emits less CO2 than glass and because it requires less storage space in bars to keep empty bottles ». In Europe, however, Italian companies are not the only ones to contest the draft of the new regulation: “The objective of Brussels – says Pierini – should only be to reduce emissions, the choice of the best way to go to reach this target. it should depend on the economic fabric of each nation. We are ready to do our part, but without ideological preconceptions ».
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