Turning waste into resources and aiming for maximum sustainability throughout the plastic life cycle. These are the goals of Aliplast, a subsidiary of the Hera Group and a leading player in Italy and Europe in the production of regenerated polymers, flexible PE film, and rigid PET film.

Aliplast is the first company in Italy to achieve full integration across the entire plastic life cycle. It operates eight plants: five in Italy and three in France, Poland and Spain.

With a plastic recovery rate exceeding 87% in 2024 and an annual output of around 100,000 tonnes of products, Aliplast helps avoid the release of approximately 213,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent each year.

Here's how it works: the company places packaging on the market, sells it, collects it directly from the customer, and regenerates it, creating a kind of closed-loop cycle. The products placed on the market are made from recycled plastic, and they are in turn fully recyclable.

This is always done with a circular economy approach, as Carlo Andriolo, CEO of Aliplast, emphasises: “Packaging should always be designed with end-of-life in mind. All companies need to think in terms of ecodesign, which is essential for the circular economy.”

This is the future of plastic: high-quality products that are fully regenerable, and an increased focus on placing recycled packaging on the market. This includes the food industry, where strict safety standards and full compliance with current food regulations are required. For this reason, the Aliplast product range – fully EU certified for food contact – includes granulated and flake polymer, PET sheet for thermoforming and extrusion, all suitable for the production of food trays and bottles.

A TOOL TO CUT POLLUTION AND REDUCE OUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Since 2018, Aliplast has carried out a rapid calculation of the carbon footprint for five product types: PE granules, PE film, PET granules, PET sheets, and PET flakes. This tool measures the greenhouse gas emissions associated with Aliplast products and compares them with those of equivalent virgin materials. The results are expressed in kg of CO₂ equivalent.

In 2024, with around 100,000 tonnes of regenerated PE granules, PE film, PET granules and PET sheets produced, an estimated 213,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent were avoided – corresponding to over 500,000 barrels of oil. The greenhouse gas savings achieved thanks to suppliers and customers choosing Aliplast’s recycled products are comparable to the emissions of around 120,000 small petrol cars driving 10,000 kilometres per year.

ALIPLAST AND NEXTCHEM WORK TOGETHER FOR A CUTTING-EDGE PLASTIC RECYCLING PLANT

Maire Tecnimont and the Hera Group have signed a strategic agreement between Aliplast and NextChem to develop a plant for the production of high-purity, high-quality recycled polymers, capable of achieving excellent chemical, physical and mechanical performance.
The goal is to process post-consumer plastic waste to obtain tailor-made recycled products, with properties and characteristics comparable to those of virgin polymers from fossil sources. The plant will ensure high safety standards and innovative features, including process automation and advanced digitalisation for data analytics, while also maximising energy efficiency. The innovative plant will be completed in the first half of 2026 and, once fully operational, will have the capacity to produce 30,000 tonnes of polymers per year.