Corepla, the plastic recycling boom

Italy is the European leader in the circular economy, but the supply chain feels in danger due to the regulations being studied in Europe. With a share of 83.4% of total special and urban waste, Italian recycling exceeds Germany at 70% and has no comparison with the EU average of 53.8%. Since the Ronchi Decree of 1997, Italy has organized itself with the Conai system (National Packaging Consortium) which collects the financial contribution for separate waste collection from producers and users of packaging, then organized by the Municipalities through local companies. Of the seven consortia that make up Conai, the one dedicated to plastics (Corepla) has recently celebrated 25 years of activity.

Giorgio Quagliuolo, president of Corepla, what are the most significant results achieved?
“The results are absolutely positive, in these 25 years the collection of plastic packaging has increased from 114,000 tonnes to 1,500,000 tonnes (+1,216%), or from 1.9 kg to 25 kg per capita. As for the material started for recycling, however, Italy went from 228,000 tonnes to over 1,050,000 tonnes: a brilliant result resulting from a widespread network that currently boasts 31 sorting plants and 92 recycling plants.But let’s also look to the near future by focusing on chemical recycling technology”.

Confindustria criticizes the EU Commission’s proposal for a regulation on packaging. The theme is to favor reuse over recycling. What’s wrong?
“Preferring reuse over recycling, where reuse has an unmeasurable environmental impact and is extremely difficult to implement, would devalue the entire Italian recycling chain which has been built up in 25 years of activity and which represents excellence worldwide”.

Why would Italy have to lose?
“By changing the approach, not only would we risk having to start over, but we would eliminate a large quantity of secondary raw materials from the market, pushing again the use of virgin raw materials”.

The EU sets increasingly challenging collection and recycling objectives for us, starting with those relating to pet bottles. How are you moving?
“To increase the interception of this packaging, we have created a dedicated collection using eco-compactors based on a reward system which, integrated with the already consolidated separate collection model, will be able to make the ambitious European objectives within the reach of the supply chain”.

It is true that not all plastic can be recycled…
Plastic that currently cannot be sent for recycling can still be used to make high-quality waste fuel, to be used in cement factories, replacing far more polluting and expensive fossil fuels such as coal or pet coke. But in Italy, unfortunately, the overall caloric replacement rate in the cement sector does not exceed 20.9%, a figure very far from the European average of 50%. A missed opportunity for our country which, precisely because it is poor in raw materials, should focus on this precious progress also with a view to decarbonisation”.