Agreement between COVAR 14 and Biorepack for food waste collection

Milan - Carignano, 25 March 2022 - More resources for the management of waste, in return for improved separate collection of compostable packaging waste together with biodegradable food waste which, when transformed into compost, will help improve the health of agricultural land and combat climate change. There are many potential benefits from the agreement signed between Consorzio di Area Vasta COVAR 14 and Biorepack, the national consortium in the CONAI system for the organic recycling of compostable bioplastic packaging, which must be disposed of together with food waste.

“Our consortium signed the agreement with Biorepack, which is the world’s first consortium for the organic recycling of biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging. These materials are a further step towards achieving the goal of maximising the recovery of waste,” said Leonardo Di Crescenzo, president of COVAR 14, a consortium covering a population of over 250,000 inhabitants in the Turin metropolitan area.

According to the agreement, Consorzio di Area Vasta COVAR 14 will ensure the management of compostable bioplastic packaging waste together with food waste, from separate collection to organic recycling through composting, in line with the new national legislation that introduced compulsory separate collection of municipal food waste together with compostable bioplastics from 1 January this year.

Under the agreement COVAR 14 will promote the separate collection of compostable bioplastics together with food waste and ensure subsequent organic recycling and will also promote the reduction in contamination by non-compostable extraneous matter. In return for this commitment, the Biorepack Consortium will make payments through a bonus scheme, based on the quality of the food waste collected separately; the higher the quality of the food waste collected, the higher the payments made by the Biorepack Consortium.

It will be crucial for the community to play an active role: everyone must take maximum care not to dispose of incompatible waste together with food waste, particularly conventional plastic. In this way, the municipality can receive the maximum payment from the Biorepack Consortium for the collection, transport and processing of compostable bioplastics, up to approximately €250 per tonne.

“This sliding scale payment mechanism is essential to incentivise collection of food waste of the highest possible quality,” explained Marco Versari, president of Biorepack. “In this respect, we remind you to always use biodegradable and compostable bags, such as shopping bags or fruit and vegetable bags, to collect organic waste. It is also thanks to these materials that Italy has become the European country that collects the most organic waste. In order to increase collection rates still further, food packaging, coffee pods and tableware can also be disposed of together with food waste provided they are made of certified compostable bioplastic bearing the appropriate labels.

Increasing the quantity of correctly-processed organic waste diverts materials from disposal in landfills or incinerators and produces compost, a natural fertiliser which ‘returns’ organic matter to the soil, unlike synthetic fertilisers. The benefits are not limited to plants and agricultural productivity (which is declining at a dangerous rate due to soil degradation), but also the fight against climate change and global warming. Organic matter is essentially composed of carbon which is stored in the soil, improving fertility, rather than being released into the atmosphere as CO₂, one of the main causes of the greenhouse effect. Soil is the second largest carbon store on the planet after the oceans. More carbon in the ground therefore means less CO₂ in the atmosphere.***

Biorepack, the Italian national consortium for the organic recycling of biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging, is a non-profit consortium under private law, whose statute was approved by decree of the Ministry of Ecological Transition together with the Ministry of Economic Development, with the aim of guaranteeing the development of separate collection and organic recycling of bioplastics together with the organic waste (Article 182-ter of the Environmental Code – Legislative Decree 152/2006). It brings together more than 200 companies involved in the production of raw materials, processing and industrial use of UNI EN 13432-certified compostable bioplastic packaging, as well as the organic recycling of this packaging.         

Martina Valentini | Journalist & PR

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