Results and benefits

Results are continuously improving. Despite the increasingly complex materials collected and transported to plants, recycling is rising in Italy. Packaging materials are even being recovered that are currently not often sent for mechanical recycling and therefore not in the recycled market.

In 2021, the overall recovery, intended as material and energy recovery, of plastic packaging managed directly by Corepla, reached 1,037,182 t, an increase of 0.4% compared to 2020, mainly thanks to the boost given by recycling.

Benefits

The recovery of plastic packaging not only means less littering, but also fewer natural resources are consumed, energy is saved and air emissions are reduced.

Recycling plastic packaging waste saves on the virgin raw materials needed to produce new plastic.

520,000 t Virgin raw materials saved

A quantity equal to 11 billion PET bottles for 1 liter detergents

What is more, the recycling process uses less energy than the production of virgin plastic, thus generating energy savings.

10,867 GWh Primary energy saved

Equal to 2.5% of the annual primary energy production in Italy

The availability of secondary raw materials to replace virgin raw materials also reduces greenhouse gases emissions into the atmosphere.

879,000 t CO2 eq emissions avoided

Equal to the emissions produced by 1,017 return flights between Rome and Tokyo.

Recovering energy from non-recyclable waste inevitably has an impact on air emissions. However, the benefits of energy recovery must also be considered, not only in terms of reduced waste to landfill, but also in terms of electricity and heat produced.

* The calculation is based on the average weight of one cubic metre of plastic packaging waste (single-material bulk collection) of 30 kg.