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.

The recycled material from Porto Marghera is distributed under the Revive brand, a portfolio of polystyrene grades containing between 35% and 100% post-consumer recycled polymer, aimed at applications in construction (thermal insulation panels) and nonfood packaging, such as protective packaging for appliances and fragile goods during transport.

“The new plant in Porto Marghera is a first step toward the conversion of Venice’s petrochemical hub, in line with the transformation and relaunch plan for Versalis, which was recently signed at the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy,” said Adriano Alfani, CEO of Versalis. “In Porto Marghera, we plan to invest in the expansion of our mechanical plastics recycling platform and to consolidate and enhance the logistics hub, including the cryogenic storage facility for ethylene.”

The project is part of a broader transformation plan for Versalis. “This shift is necessary as we face a loss of competitiveness in certain value chains, such as base chemicals, along with weak demand in downstream sectors and rising imports from countries with more competitive prices,” Alfani added.

This rationale has driven the company’s strategic pivot toward specialties, also through acquisitions—such as Finproject, Novamont, and more recently Tecnofilm—which operate in more sustainable and competitive segments.

This strategy also encompasses both mechanical and chemical recycling. Following Porto Marghera, the next milestone will be in Mantua, with the upcoming inauguration of a new plant using Hoop pyrolysis technology.

“We are not abandoning chemistry,” Alfani concluded. “We are evolving from a business focused on base chemicals to new platforms, such as biochemicals and circularity.”

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