In Modena the hard plastic that used to be burnt comes back as good as new, and will employ 80 people
24 October 2026, 18:31
On 20 October, in Modena, Aliplast opened R3GID, a plant that recycles rigid plastic: crates, tanks, containers, parts of household appliances and of cars. Aliplast is a company of the Hera group, the Bologna multi-utility listed on the stock exchange, of which at the end of 2024 more than a hundred municipalities owned just under half. The plant has already been running for a few months, can process up to 30,000 tonnes of waste a year and, at full capacity, will employ 80 people.
Until now that plastic was usually not recycled: it ended up in the incinerator or in landfill. Disposal costs money, and it is paid by whoever throws things away: businesses for their scrap, households through the waste tax for what they put out at home. In Modena the plastic is sorted by type and colour, shredded, washed and turned into granules more than 99 per cent pure. According to Aliplast, the quality is the same as new plastic made from oil. The old bumper can become a bumper again, instead of going up in smoke.
Why now? Two European regulations will require new products to contain a share of recycled plastic: the one on packaging, 2025/40, and the one on end-of-life vehicles, 2026/1738. Someone will have to produce that plastic, and today the plants are not enough: according to a study by European recyclers cited by the group, by 2040 Europe will need an extra 5.7 million tonnes a year of capacity to recycle rigid plastic. For Hera's chief executive, Orazio Iacono, R3GID «is the answer of those who move first». Brussels has written the rules. Plants, it seems, are not built by regulation.
Then there is the public money, and for once the sums add up. The plant cost €48.8 million. Of this, €7.7 million, one sixth, came from the PNRR, Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, paid for with the European funds set aside after Covid. The rest was put in by the Hera group. For once, PNRR money can be weighed, in the form of granules that somebody buys.
And there is the bill nobody sees. Every kilo of regenerated plastic is a kilo of virgin material that does not have to be made from oil, and a piece of waste that does not end up in the furnace. The 80 jobs are born from rubbish. According to Aliplast's estimates, the plant avoids emissions of around 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
For hard plastic, Modena now offers a road that does not end in the chimney.
This article was prompted by a news item published in ANSA on 20 October 2026.