Versalis, Eni's chemical company, announces that it has started using packaging made with recycled raw material from post-consumer industrial packaging.
Packaging represents the main sector of use for plastics, accounting for 40,5% of the total demand for plastics in Europe. If designed for single use, it quickly generates waste which, if not properly managed and treated, risks being dispersed into the environment. For this Versalis has fielded two projects, “Bag to Bag” and “Liner to Liner”, with which it aims to create a virtuous circuit aimed at recovering and recycling industrial polyethylene packaging bags and re-introducing them into the system.
In the "Bag to Bag" project, the bags used for packaging and shipping polyethylene products, including those intended for food applications, are made with 50% recycled material and are entirely recyclable, also thanks to a design specifically designed for reduce the use of ink in labeling. The project has passed the test phase according to specification in all Versalis operating sites: their use has been underway for some months in the plants in Ragusa and Ferrara and by the end of the year it will also be operational in Brindisi and at the foreign subsidiaries in Dunkerque and Oberhausen. .
In the "Liner to Liner", developed and applicable mainly in the Brindisi site, the internal linings of the containers used for the transport of bulk polyethylene, called Liner, are sent for recycling and transformed into new ones, containing 50% recycled plastic, for then be reused in the Apulian industrial site. Thanks to the selection of recycling companies in the area, it will also be possible to create a virtuous circuit with a short supply chain of use, collection, recycling and production of new regenerated liners.
Versalis uses around 1250 tons of bags and 175 tons of Liner every year. The two initiatives contribute to reducing the consumption of virgin raw materials by 50% (Bag to Bag) and 50% (Liner to Liner), with a consequent reduction also in terms of CO2.
Versalis joined the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) by signing voluntary commitments in 2020 also relating to single-use industrial packaging, to actively contribute to the ambitious European goal of using 10 million tons of recycled plastic in new products by 2025.