PISTOIA – The “From vase to vase” project will start next September, which involves the creation of a short supply chain for the recycling of plastic vases used in the nurseries of the Pistoia District which will involve the nurserymen of the Italian Nurserymen Association (responsible body of the District) , Revet for the collection and regeneration of plastic, vase printers and specialized (agricultural) traders in the Pistoia area.
“This is what was announced during the last AVI meeting, Friday 21 June at the Pantheon of the Puccini-Bonacchi Park in Pistoia, by the president Alessandro Michelucci and the CEO of Revet Alessia Scappini, not only to the many nurserymen present and to the president of District Francesco Ferrini, who actively contributed to the path of the “From vase to vase” project, but also to the major institutional representatives of the territory and the agricultural sector: from the undersecretary of Agriculture Patrizio La Pietra to the regional councilor for agri-food Stefania Saccardi, from the mayor of Pistoia Alessandro Tomasi to the municipal councilor for nurseries and environmental policies Gabriele Sgueglia”.
As explained by Michelucci and Scappini, thanks to a supply chain agreement signed in early June, starting from September 2024 Revet, the Pontedera company with predominantly public capital (with majority shareholder Alia) which manages and valorises all the separate waste collection of packaging from Tuscany, will begin to collect the pots (and irrigation pipes) discarded by the Pistoia nurseries: either directly in the large nursery companies or in the special storage center set up at Agribios for the disposal of small nurserymen. In the Revet plants, this plastic waste will first be reclaimed and then treated together with the plastics coming from the separate collection of packaging from Tuscan citizens to produce the polyolefin granule which constitutes the recycled raw material already used for the production of recycled vases. Some large pot molding companies in Pistoia and the surrounding area, signatories of the supply chain agreement, will purchase this granule to produce certified pots which will then be purchased and marketed by some important agricultural companies (also signatories of the agreement) where nurserymen normally they supply for the purchase of vases and everything they need.
“It is the first short recycling chain for plastic pots in Europe – declared the president of AVI Alessandro Michelucci after the meeting – because the companies involved are all within a radius of just a few kilometres. This means a drastic reduction in energy consumption and lower environmental impact. And the pots will be certified, with consequent image and commercial advantages for our nurseries”.
But Michelucci also focused on the immediate economic advantage of this supply chain project for AVI nurseries, who “will see the costs of plastic disposal almost eliminated”, since pots represent a large part of the plastic used in nurseries ( almost entirely in the absence of greenhouses) and the delivery of waste pots (and irrigation pipes, which however have little impact in terms of quantity) to Revet will be free, apart from transport and logistics costs.
Both Michelucci and Scappini underlined that the supply chain agreement will bring benefits not only to the nurserymen, but to all those involved, as well as in general to the eco-sustainability of the Pistoia and Tuscan territory. “For us at Revet – explained the CEO of Revet Alessia Scappini – the agreement will lead to a slight increase in the quantity of plastics treated and granules sold, in addition to the image advantage of contributing to a Region that has built this unique supply chain from a circularity point of view. While the printers will be able to count on the reliability of the product received from us and will have the certainty of a local market of buyers of the vases thus produced”. The same goes for agricultural companies, which will have the guarantee of being “the only ones able to sell these certified pots to Pistoia nurserymen”. In short, for Scappini “it is a supply chain agreement in which everyone benefits, as long as everyone does their part by keeping the commitments made. Also because sustainability objectives today concern all types of companies.”
Scappini then recalled that the task of “tracing this closed supply chain” will fall to Revet, “because it is the only entity that can certify the fact that waste is made into a secondary raw material from which the object is then produced again where we started.”
“This supply chain is open to everyone – concluded Michelucci – and if there is another printer who maybe in two months says ‘I want to start too’, so be it. The important thing is that it is local to keep the supply chain short. The same goes for agriculture. And I remind nursery companies interested in disposing of plastic from their nurseries for free that it is possible to do so by joining AVI”.
