Versalis (Eni), RadiciGroup and Safitex combine their skills to make the synthetic grass of sports fields recyclable, with a view to circular economy. The supply chain project was presented today at Ecomondo and sees the collaboration of Versalis, as a supplier of the raw material, polyethylene, of RadiciGroup, producer of yarns for sports applications, and of Safitex, manufacturer of synthetic grass carpets.
The project is developed in an all-Italian supply chain and aims to strengthen the circularity of this application so as to reduce the impact of its end of life, today still managed mainly through landfill or incineration, with consequent emissions of greenhouse gases.
Thanks to the collaboration of three Italian industrial excellences, which have taken the path of the so-called "Made Green in Italy", at the end of life the synthetic turf carpet can be used for recycling in the plastic world: it is collected, minced and transformed for other applications in the sports sector (shin guards, elbow pads, harnesses) or in the furniture sector (vases, accessories and garden tools).
In order to assess the environmental performance of the project, the three companies carried out a life cycle analysis, LCA-Life Cycle Assessment, each for their own product, which allowed a quantification of the environmental impacts reliable, transparent and based on data scientific and calculation rules common and valid throughout the European territory. The results of the studies carried out on the polymer (Versalis), on the yarn (Radigreen® by RadiciGroup) and on the carpet (EcoNext by Safitex) have been verified by an independent certification body (Certiquality) which has issued a certificate for each product Environmental Footprint (* PEF), a methodology recognized at European level that allows to measure the environmental performance of products throughout their life cycle.
* PEF
The environmental footprint of product PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) is a method based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), used to calculate the environmental performance of a product or service throughout its entire life cycle. PEF information is provided with the general objective of reducing the environmental impacts of products and services taking into account supply chain activity (from raw material extraction to production, use and final waste management) . The Environmental Product Footprint project has been launched with the aim of defining a harmonized methodology for environmental footprint studies that may include a broader set of relevant environmental performance criteria based on the life cycle concept. This approach is essential to ensure effective management, since some important environmental effects can occur "upstream" or "downstream", and therefore not immediately be apparent.