March 25, 2025 16:15

In Porto Marghera, on the outskirts of Venice—once home to a major petrochemical hub now decommissioned—the shift from basic chemicals to a circular economy officially began yesterday with the press presentation of Versalis’ new mechanical recycling plant for post-consumer styrenic waste.

This marks the first stage of a project announced four years ago following the acquisition of Ecoplastic’s technology and facilities, which now allow the Venetian site to produce up to 20,000 tonnes per year of expanded polystyrene (rEPS) and general-purpose polystyrene (rGPPS) with recycled content of up to 100%, using secondary raw material sourced from styrenics waste, initially EPS from the construction industry.

The facility consists of two processing lines. In the first (1000/3000), expanded polystyrene—received compacted into briquettes and pretreated—is filtered, blended with color additives to ensure uniformity, and then extruded into polystyrene pellets (rPS). In the second unit (2000/4000), these pellets are further compounded with flame retardants and blowing agents, depending on the final application, to produce expandable recycled EPS beads (rEPS) for the end market.