A deal has been signed between Aliplast and NextChem for a plastic chemical recycling plant in Italy.
Aliplast is the subsidiary of Italy’s Hera Group that collects, recycles and converts plastics. While NextChem is a division of Maire Tecnimont Group that will provide the technology to turn the plastics into high-value polymers.
Currently, Aliplast operates plants in France, Spain and Poland and produces 90,000 tonnes per year of flexible PE and PET film sheets.
But this new plant will allow it to move into recycling and compounding of rigid plastics such as PP, HDPE and ABS, that it says are difficult to recycle with mechanical recycling processes.
Hera Group executive chairman Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano said: “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.
“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 sustainable targets and to meet customers’ needs, which increasingly require high-quality polymers.”
Maire Tecnimont and NextChem chief executive Pierroberto Folgiero added: “This agreement is a great result for our strategy to develop plastic waste upcycling through our MyReplast technology, starting with our plant in Bedizzole 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 Hera Group.”
