Recycled plastic: conversion of the Unilever site in Pozzilli gets under way

The Unilever factory in Pozzilli, in the province of Isernia, is at the centre of a major multi-year industrial conversion project that will transform the facility into one of the most advanced recycled plastic production sites in Europe and the only one in Southern Italy capable of recovering mixed plastic material from post-consumer waste which would otherwise be sent to waste-to-energy plants and cement factories.

The project will be managed by the newly formed company P2P (Packaging to Polymers), created as a joint venture between Unilever and Seri Plast (a subsidiary of MTA market listed company Seri Industrial S.p.A.).

The partnership involves a long-term commercial agreement whereby the new company P2P will supply Unilever with plastic raw materials recovered from post-consumer recycled packaging. Unilever believes this will speed up progress towards the ambitious goal of a waste-free world. The company’s specific target is to halve the use of virgin plastic for packaging by 2025 and to increase the use of post-consumer recycled plastic by 25%.

The conversion project was carried out in cooperation with the Italian government, the Molise regional government, the trade unions and the Italian Ministry for Economic Development.

“This new model of multi-stakeholder co-creation is one that Unilever has embraced strongly right from the start,” explained Gianfranco Chimirri, Unilever HR Director and head of the project. “We have worked together with the Italian and regional governments and the social partners in accordance with two guiding principles: a long-term strategic vision and safeguarding of the jobs of our own employees and those working in the supply chain as a whole; and ensuring the sustainability of the value chain of both the industrial area and the local community.”

When all the equipment has been installed, the Pozzilli plant will have an output of around 130,000 tonnes of raw material from recycled plastics for the production of plastic containers for household detergents and cleaning products and for use in the food industry.