Biorepack and Azienda Servizi Municipalizzati di Molfetta sign agreement

Milan - Molfetta, 20 April 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 today between Azienda Servizi Municipalizzati di Molfetta 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.

“Another reason to provide quality separate waste collection,” said Vito Corrado Paparella, president of Azienda Servizi Municipalizzati di Molfetta, who noted how important it is to "always use biodegradable and compostable bags to collect organic waste. We won’t just be helping the environment, we’ll also avoid the fines imposed by composting plants. And what’s more we’ll receive a financial contribution from the new Biorepack Consortium.”

According to the agreement, Azienda Servizi Municipalizzati di Molfetta will ensure the management of compostable bioplastic packaging waste together with food waste, from separate collection to organic recycling – 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 Azienda Servizi Municipalizzati di Molfetta 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 separately collected food waste; 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, drinks 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.