More steel recovered from packaging
Steel containers and closures, tins and crown caps, aerosol cans and industrial drums: steel packaging continues to prove a “friend of the environment” in 2014.
The 335,854 tons of steel packaging recycled in Italy in 2014 would be enough make 2,239 copies of the Tree of Life (the icon of the Italian Pavilion and the symbol of Expo 2015).
The recovery rate, 74.3% of the total put on the market, exceeds by a wide margin the target set by Legislative Decree 152/06 (+50%), enabling Italy to rank among the “most virtuous” European countries.
Compared to the previous year, indicators signal growing values for both the amount of packaging put on the market (+6.9%) and the amount collected (+7.8%) and recycled (+4.9%).
These are the 2014 values released by Ricrea, the Italian steel packaging collection and recycling Consortium, during its annual assembly.
And Ricrea general manager Federico Fusari didn’t hide his satisfaction: «Our achievements enable us to look to the future with considerable optimism and are the catalyst for pursuing further improvement, starting with supporting municipal governments to facilitate collection and recycling».
Partnerships with municipal governments and online auctions
During the course of 2014, the Anci-Conai Framework Agreement was renewed, with a 17.5% increase in the compensations Ricrea will award cities participating in the steel packaging collection convention.
Also, as of April 2015, a reduction of the “Conai environment contribution” (CAC) is in effect, moving it from 26 to 21 euro/t: a good sign for producer and user concerns, especially in the current economy.
«For Ricrea - Fusari explains - the challenge in the coming years will be the reduced earnings resulting from the reduction of the CAC, as well as our greater commitment to city governments. In order to meet this challenge, we will focus on further implementing the auction system, which we introduced during the second half of 2014, and which immediately demonstrated its effectiveness. The auctions guarantee maximum transparency in assigning the recycled materials to operators, and they enable us to achieve a higher valuation at purchase of the collected packaging. Furthermore, we are seeking to increase direct sales to steelworks, where recovered steel containers can be reborn».
452,386 t of steel packaging was put on the Italian market in 2014, a 6.9% increase over the previous year. As mentioned above, 397,298 t of steel packaging waste was recovered (+7.8%).
«The increase in conventions and partnerships has caused flows from public spaces to increase by 17% over 2013, with the greatest increases in central Italy (+34%) and the country’s south (+18%)».
Looking at data on the flows from industry, on the other hand, the amount collected went down slightly (-3%), due to the persistence of the crisis in production sectors that use drums and general line, with a consequent shrinkage in the volumes of scraps.
In fact, steel is the most recycled material in Europe: easy to separate, it can be reused limitlessly without losing its intrinsic properties.
In Italy, steel packaging recovery in 2014 led to direct savings of 638,122 t in iron and 201,512 t in coal and in 601,178 t in CO2.
Ricrea at Made in Steel
The sixth edition of Made in Steel, a conference & exhibition dedicated to the steel industry and organized by Siderweb, was held 20-22 May in the pavilions of Fieramilano (Rho). The Ricrea consortium participated at the event with a show space entirely dedicated to the life cycle and recycling of steel packaging (but also recycled construction materials, especially rebars).
On show at the Ricrea stand were pressed cubes of steel packaging recovered from recycling and ready for processing at a steelworks/foundry, in addition to some recycled steel products, including beams, rebars, wrenches, bolts, etc…
The highlight at the stand were elegant silkscreen applications - also in steel - designed for the Ambarabà Ricicloclò contest (an educational project promoted by Ricrea), displayed on metal drums.
