Gruppo Hera part of new plastic recycling effort in Italy

The Aliplast subsidiary of Bologna, Italy-based utilities and environmental services firm Gruppo Hera says it has signed a “strategic agreement” with the NextChem subsidiary of the Maire Tecnimont Group to build a new plastics recycling plant. The new facility will use “proprietary innovative technology” called MyReplast to recycle plastic scrap into what the firms call high-value-added polymers.

According to the two companies, the plant will be able to produce up to 30,000 metric tons per year of recycled-content polymers. NextChem will provide technology and engineering, procurement and construction services while Aliplast will collect plastic scrap and engage in initial processing steps with the material.

According to Gruppo Hera, Aliplast currently operates plants in France, Spain and Poland and “is a leader in the production of flexible film of polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet, with 90,000 tons per year of finished products and regenerated polymers, and over 90 percent recovery/recycling in terms of volumes.”

The companies say the partnership with NextChem will allow Aliplast to “exploit recycling and compounding opportunities in order to expand into the sector of rigid plastics, like polypropylene (PP), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Aliplast describes those materials as “difficult to recycle effectively with mechanical processes.”

“This partnership is necessary to combine excellence and strengths of players that can make a difference in the energy transition towards a more sustainable development model, which has been Hera Group’s goal for several years across all business lines,” says Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano, executive chairman of Hera Group.

Adds di Vignano, “Plastics need a recycling industry based on technology and innovation, to handle difficult waste that mechanical recycling cannot treat. This is why Aliplast decided to pick NextChem’s upcycling technology to achieve sustainability targets and to meet customers’ needs, which increasingly require high-quality polymers”,

Remarks Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont and NextChem CEO, “This agreement is a great result for our strategy to develop plastic waste upcycling through our MyReplast technology, starting with our plant in Bedizzole [Italy], and which aims to expand at the European and international level. The recycling sector needs a quality-based approach and an industrial vision, with a strong focus on the market and synergies between players, like for example the partnership with Gruppo Hera.”