Italy recycled more than 1 mn t of waste plastics in 2020 (particularly post-consumer waste), which represented 18% of all plastics used, according to the Institute for the Promotion of Recycled Plastics (IPPR, Alexandria, Italy; www.ippr.it).

In total, IPPR has certified more than 6,500 plastic products as “second-life” under Italy’s national accreditation body Accredia (Rome; www.accredia.it).

The only Italian scheme among the six approved by the European Commission’s Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) is Plastica Seconda Vita (PSV, Milan; www.ippr.it/psv). The CPA has established a system for collecting and recording data from companies and validating it through certification schemes. Its target is for 10 mn t of recycled polymers to be used by 2025 (see Plasteurope.com of 01.10.2021).

Related: Circular Plastics Alliance officially recognises RecyClass traceability certification

PSV said its audits, verifying a company’s mass balance over the entire calendar year, and data on the volumes of recycled plastics (pre- or post-consumption) that are incorporated into new products, can be supplied to CPA by submitting it free of charge to online platform Monitoring Recyclates for Europe (MORE).

Last year, PSV joined PolyCert Europe (Brussels; www.polycerteurope.eu), a quality compliance programme for plastics processors (see Plasteurope.com of 19.05.2021).

Related: New DIN standard for recyclate classifications in Germany