Circulary

The project has been developed with the aim of recovering and recycling industrial polyethylene packaging – such as bags and liners – used for the shipping of Versalis’ products on pallets and by truck/containers.

It involves the collection of used bags and liners and their recycling for the production of secondary raw materials, suitable for new packaging. This resulted in the creation of an efficient “bag to bag” and “liner to liner” circular design scheme, in collaboration with supply chain operators.

Following the successful tests with bags containing 30% of regenerated material, an experimental test with 50% regenerated material has been launched (February 2019). Currently, for liners, the recycled content is as much as 30%.

• This project increases the circularity of polyethylene industrial packaging, allowing its recycling and reuse within the value chain. Adopting such a circular scheme enables to save resources, reduce plastics waste generation and improve the supply chain’s sustainability.
• The liner to liner design scheme is estimated to reduce the carbon footprint up to 20%, while the water footprint and the resources depletion up to 20% and 30% respectively.
• The project includes a controlled close loop of users, which also enables the use of packaging for food contact applications.

• Raising the awareness of the whole value chain would help maximizing the collection and recovering of used packaging.
• The support from institutions is crucial to encourage the purchase and use of products containing recycled material and the development of value chain initiatives for the management and reduction of waste.

• Selene Company, Italy
• Eceplast, Italy

Alessandra Colombo

Alessandra.Colombo@versalis.eni.com