Aliplast, among Europe’s leaders in plastic regeneration, is growing in recycled PET. Controlled by Herambiente, part of the Hera Group, this company has now acquired the Gurit Italia business unit dedicated to PET recycling. This unit operates in the Carmignano di Brenta (Padua) plant and has an incremental production capacity of roughly 15,000 tonnes of recycled PET per year.
The Hera Group subsidiary has integrated Gurit Italia’s Carmignano di Brenta plant dedicated to PET recycling. This investment looks towards the growth of an increasingly important market.
An evolving regulatory framework
This acquisition is part of Aliplast’s broader strategy aimed at responding to the growing demand for recycled PET, which is also a consequence of the evolution of the European and Italian regulatory framework.
In particular, legislative decree 196/21, which applies in Italy the Directive 2019/904 SUP (Single Use Plastics), includes among its various requirements as of 1 January the obligation for plastic containers of liquid foods to contain at least 25% of recycled raw material. An increased use of recycled plastics is also required by the new European PPWR packaging regulation.
The production and logistics integrated into Aliplast
The Carmignano di Brenta plant processes incoming post-consumer PET coming from the recovery chains of the Corepla and Coripet consortia. Thanks to this investment, Aliplast will integrate a new PET grinding, washing, and extrusion line, suitable both for food contact (e.g. bottles or food trays) and for use in fibers destined for consumer products such as clothing or automobile accessories.
In addition to increasing production capacity, this acquisition will also optimize Aliplast’s logistics chain, which will be able to integrate Gurit’s large storage yards into its flow of goods.
Michele Petrone, Aliplast CEO said, “We are continuing along a path of qualitative and quantitative growth. This acquisition is, first and foremost, in line with our business plan, which includes the regeneration of resources as one of its qualifying points,” explains Petrone.
“It also continues along a path of growth characterized not only by an expansion of production capacity but also by an increasing focus on quality and traceability, to guarantee customers the highest standards in terms of supply chain transparency and product safety. This is a vision that looks towards the long term and which in 2024 rewarded us with an expansion of our customer base by more than 9% compared to the previous year.”
