The Relevance of CIER in the Italian Circular Plastics District

Circular Economy Network

The circular process begins with the individual collection processes of urban and industrial recycling. COREPLA collects waste from associated landfills and organizes monthly auctions in which the companies of the category participate. CIER buys post-consumer plastic which is then selected by type of composition and color. The result of the process developed by CIER, through specific transformation processes, can be a scale, a granule or more frequently a coil. These products are then sold to partner companies that use the secondary raw material for their products.

The most important suppliers of CIER are:

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  Corepla, National Consortium, a non-profit organization for the collection, recycling and recovery of plastic packaging, which brings together companies in the packaging supply chain. Despite being a private consortium, its purpose is of public interest: the achievement of the objectives of recycling and recovery of plastic packaging provided for by European legislation, with a view to shared responsibility between companies, Public Administration and Citizens.

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  CONAI, “Consorzio Nazionale Imballaggi”, a private Consortium that operates on a non-profit basis, which constitutes the response of private companies to a problem of collective interest, such as the environment, in compliance with guidelines and objectives set by the political system. About 760,000 companies producing and using packaging are members of the Consortium System. CONAI directs the activity and guarantees the recovery results of 7 Consortia of materials: steel (Ricrea), aluminum (Cial), paper / cardboard (Comieco), wood (Rilegno), plastic (Corepla), bioplastic (Biorepack), glass (Coreve), ensuring the necessary connection between these and the Public Administration.

These bodies support the Municipalities in activating and developing adequate separate collection systems, recognizing them or the operators delegated by them the fees provided for by the ANCI-CONAI Framework Agreement to support the increased costs incurred for the performance of the collection. It also communicates to citizens and various stakeholders, raising awareness of the best practice of separate collection and, more generally, promotes interventions to reduce the environmental impact of plastic packaging starting from the companies belonging to the consortium.

The companies participating in the consortium are divided into 4 categories:

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  Category A “Producers”: mandatory adhesion by companies producing or importing raw materials for the manufacture of plastic packaging;

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  Category B “Transformers”: compulsory membership of companies producing or importing plastic packaging;

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  Category C “Self-producers”: optional membership by user companies that manufacture their plastic packaging or import packaged goods;

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  Category D “Recyclers and recuperators”: optional membership of companies that recycle and/or recover plastic packaging waste.

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  waste prevention.

The different products made by Cier are destinated to three main different sectors:

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  Packaging for cosmetics.

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  Packaging for foods, such as bottles for water or packs for pasta.

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  Other uses that are not destinated to foods packaging, such us the production of tubes, vases and other different objects.