'Circular Plastic', a plant for the selection and storage of plastics, was inaugurated by Iren

It is the largest in Italy, it will process up to 100 thousand tons. After three years of work, Circular Plastic, one of the largest plants in Italy for selection and storage, was inaugurated today in Borgaro Torinese, in the province of Turin. of plastic waste. Built by Amiat and managed by I.Blu, two companies of the Iren Group active in the environmental and circular economy supply chain, the plant, created with the most modern technologies in the sector, which allow maximum flexibility for all the recycling elements of the plastic. It has an annual treatment capacity of approximately 100,000 tonnes. The plant, for the construction of which 45 million euros were invested, stands on an area of ​​77 thousand square meters of surface area, employs around forty people and is capable of treating loose waste derived from the separate collection of plastic and single/multi-material waste, conferred by the collection system or resulting from pre-selection operations carried out in other plants in central-northern Italy, including the Iren Ambiente plant in Pianezza. Circular Plastic includes 130 conveyor belts equipped with 22 optical readers capable of recognizing and dividing 17 types of polymers and plastics, carrying out an accurate selection of the plastics that can be included in a subsequent recovery cycle of the raw material. The incoming material is first selected by size: the finest waste undergoes subsequent separation, which allows the recovery of further valorisable packaging fractions.

Intermediate sized materials are differentiated between rigid and flexible and, in the case of PET bottles, also by colour. Once the optical and dimensional selection process has been completed, the plastic is stored and delivered to the authorized consortia, while the non-plastic waste or non-usable plastics are processed and prepared for energy recovery. From a single flow of material, the system therefore allows the different products to be divided, selected by type of polymer and colour, sending approximately 80% of the incoming waste to the recycling plants, and thus promoting significant circularity through reuse. some materials. Efficiency that can be further improved: within Circular Plastic, an experiment will be carried out linked to the European ReBioCycle project, financed under the Horizon programme, thanks to which robotic systems will be tested for the selection, through artificial intelligence algorithms, of the bioplastics. In terms of raising awareness of environmentally friendly issues, the revamping of the plant was also an opportunity to collaborate with two artists, the photographer Silvia Fubini and the sculptor and photographer Ornella Rovera, who each created a work inspired by the plant and its themes of sustainability and the fight against climate change: the two installations, some large-sized photographs and a sculpture, will be positioned within the site.