Corepla’s Green Economy Report

Twenty years after its establishment, Corepla (National Italian Consortium for the collection, recycling and recovery of plastic packaging) presented in September the Green Economy Report, which analyses the European framework for the recovery/recycling of plastic packaging and its future challenges, in the light of new EU regulations, reporting on the consortium’s actions in recent years.

Italy: virtuous example. Second European producer after Germany, between 2005 and 2017 Italy increased the amount of plastic packaging sent for recycling  by 64%. 82% of this increase was achieved thanks to the contribution of Corepla, which in 2017 exceeded one million tonnes collected. In the same period, thanks to the action of the Consortium, the use of over 3 million tons of virgin raw material (300 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower), the consumption of 71 thousand GWh of primary energy (15% of that consumed in Italy in 2016) and the emission of 6 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere (over 6 thousand return flights from Rome to Tokyo) was avoided. The economic benefits linked to the recovery and recycling  are quantifiable in 2 billion euros, divided as follows: 1.5 billion in value of the raw material not consumed, plus 450 million from the energy produced, and 93 million estimated for the reduced CO2 emissions.

Giving a positive picture overall, the Report highlights some aspects on which there is still work to be done. Despite the increase in the quantities of material collected, the recycling rate has decreased slightly over the past few years: this would seem to be due to the capacity of the system to absorb ever-increasing quantities as well as, in part, to the growth registered in recent years of the “extraneous fraction” (plastic not from packaging and non-plastic materials) that went from 42 to 95 thousand tons between 2014 and 2017.