Consortia

The 7 Consortia guarantee to take back any separated packaging waste made from steel, aluminium, paper, wood, plastic, bioplastic or glass and to treat and deliver it to the end recycler, which can be a single plant or an accredited intermediary.

The task of each Consortium is therefore to coordinate, organise and increase:

• the take back of packaging waste given to public service;
• the collection of packaging waste from industrial and commercial companies;
• the recycling and recovery of packaging waste;
• the promotion of research and technological innovation for recovery and recycling.

Ricrea is a consortium which looks after the recycling of steel packaging, such as jars, tins, caps, barrels, cans and spary cans from the separate waste collection organised by Italian municipalities. In 2015, Ricrea recycled 348,000 tons of steel packaging, equating to 73.4% of the materials on the market, involving 5,750 municipalities and over 48 million Italian citizens. www.consorzioricrea.org

CiAl is a non-profit consortium that represents the commitment by aluminium producers and aluminium packaging producers and users towards finding ways of reducing and recovering packaging, while striking a balance between market demand and the need to protect the environment. Over the past year, through its close agreements with over 5,400 Italian Municipalities and the involvement of 47 million citizens, the Consortium has recovered 70% of the aluminium packaging placed on the Italian market. www.cial.it

Comieco is a national consortium for the recovery and recycling of paper and cardboard, bringing together companies from the Italian paper and cardboard industry, including producers, processors and recyclers. Between 1998 and 2015, thanks to the development of paper and cardboard recycling in towns, the percentage of recycling in Italy grew from 37% to almost 80%: 4 cellulose packs in 5 are now recycled. www.comieco.org

Rilegno is a consortium that recovers wooden packaging waste, bringing together all the producers in the sector: from suppliers of packaging materials to manufacturers of fruit and vegetable packaging or industrial pallets and packaging, from importers of packaging materials and empty wooden packaging to wooden packaging recycling companies. Thanks to Rilegno’s work, every year over 1,600,000 tons of packaging waste are recycled: about 95% of this waste is semi-processed for the furniture industry. Rilegno is also the reference consortium for cork recycling. www.rilegno.org

Corepla is the national consortium for the collection, recycling and recovery of plastic packaging waste, involving the entire industrial sector: producers and converter of plastics for the manufacture of packaging, as well as any companies, on a completely voluntary basis, which use, plastic packaging and recover/recycle plastic packaging waste. Thanks to Corepla, over 90% of Italian municipalities now recycle plastic packaging, allowing to recycle and recover 867,000 tons of material. www.corepla.it

Biorepack is the new consortium (extended producer responsibility system) for the recycling of life of biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging certified in compliance with the standard EN 13432. It is the first European consortium for the organic recycling of bioplastic packaging and seventh consortium of the CONAI system – which establishes the value of biological (organic) recycling. The task of the Consortium is to recycle biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging, that at the end of its life is transformed, with specific industrial treatment, into energy in the form of biogas and into compost, a natural fertilizer that revitalize the soil. Organic waste today represents the most important flow (40%) of domestic waste collection. www.biorepack.org

Coreve is the national consortium responsible for recycling and recovery glass packaging waste produced across Italy. This Consortium is formed by all the companies that manufacture glass packaging, as well as importers, bottlers and wholesalers.  It streamlines, organises, manages and promotes the collection of glass packaging waste from the separate collection run by public services, ensuring that it is recycled. www.coreve.it