Beyond Plastics: the Novamont case study at the UK Embassy in Rome

On October 2, at the Villa Wolkonsky, the official residence of the British Ambassador in Rome the event "Beyond Plastics" was held. The initiative aimed at stimulating dialogue between representatives of the Italian and British governments, engaged in the elimination of single-use plastics, together with business and civil society.
 
In April the United Kingdom, announced its intention to ban microbeads from cosmetics and to ban the sale of single-use plastics, starting from 2019,  underlining the significant role that biodegradable and compostable plastics can play in addressing the challenges of plastic pollution on land and climate change.
 
In the first part of the day, the Italian Ministries of the Environment, Agriculture, Education and Research, and the United Kingdom Departments for Enterprises, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), International Trade (DIT) and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA),  discussed the current policies and the future perspectives for plastics.
 
Alberto Castellanza, Novamont's International Sales Manager, opened the second section dedicated to the industrial case studies and to civil society campaigns aimed at the reduction of plastic pollution.
 
Castellanza illustrated how the Novamont bioplastics are able to regenerate territories, in environmental, economic and social terms, as they are the result of a virtuous process, based on the regeneration of deindustrialised sites, on the integrated agricultural value chain and on products intended to solve specific problems. Indeed biodegradable and compostable bioplastics are not designed to replace all plastic applications, but only where there are serious risks for soil pollution, as in the agricultural sector, and in the management of organic waste and in cosmetics.
 
On 3 October, the delegation of the British government visiting Rome, had the opportunity to learn about Mater-Biopolymer, Novamont’s new plant based in Patrica (FR), which is the result of the conversion of an old plant dedicated to the production of PET.
Today, the plant produces the ORIGO-BI. ORIGO-BI is a family of biopoliester obtained from raw materials of renewable origin, aimed at improving the technical and environmental performance of our compostable bioplastics called MATER-BI.