Global manufacturer Unilever and Italian firm Seri Industrial have agreed to collaborate on a project to convert a Unilever facility at Pozzilli into a recycling plant.
The Seri Plast subsidiary has agreed a 50/50 joint venture with Unilever that will see the purchase and conversion of the latter’s Pozzilli manufacturing plant in Italy. It currently manufactures detergents for cleaning the home and clothing.
An investment of €75 million (£65 million) will be made to convert the facility to one that will have a capacity of 130,000 tonnes per year. Unilever is expected to use the feedstock generated at the plant in its products.
The plant will produce plastics recovered from post-consumer packaging, and as these will be mixed plastics, seems most likely to be a chemical recycling plant.
Seri Plast president/chief executive Vittorio Civitillo and chief executive Andrea Civitillo said in a joint statement: “Once converted, the plant will be the only one in Southern Italy capable of recovering the mixed fraction of post-consumer packaging, which is currently being sent to landfills, waste-to-energy plants and cement factories.
“The Pozzilli plant will be built with the application of the best technological standards and will allow the country to reduce the production and use of virgin hydrocarbon plastic.”
