These eco-compactors are hungry for plastic bottles

Rome markets now give you the chance to get more hands-on about recycling

Rome’s municipal website informed today that the latest of the plastic bottle compactors has been installed at the Irnerio market in District XIII. Thus, the initiative of placing 17 of these plastic-eating machines at the grocery markets of the Italian capital has been completed successfully. The name of this initiative even rhymes in Italian – “Riciclami al mercato… e sarai premiato” (‘Recycle me at the market and you will be rewarded’).

Citizens can thus take a more active and direct part in the recycling policy of their city and even get a small reward along the way – for every 100 crunched bottles they will get 1-euro discount at participating market vendors for purchases of minimum 5 euros.

Europe wants to have future plastic bottles produced from 25% recycled material

This project was agreed on back in September 2020 with the Coripet Consortium during an official signing with Rome City Hall. The mayor of the city, Virginia Raggi, was also present today at the installation and demonstration of the eco-compactor.

These devices comply with the European strategy, which seeks to implement by the year 2025 that all PET bottles will be produced with 25% recycled (R-pet) material. This is also known as the ‘bottle to bottle’ approach to reducing waste and creating a circular economy.

The initiative also takes its clues from an earlier pilot project carried out in Rome – this one involving the subway. Under the name ‘+Ricicli +Viaggi’ (‘More recycling – more trips’), passengers could similarly get discounts on tickets when they recycle bottles at compactors located in certain stations.

The machines are simple to use and have instructions written on their fronts but nonetheless, Coripet staff will be present during the first days after the installation to help and direct people in using them. They will explain which types of bottles can go in and how points can be accumulated with the help of a special Coripet mobile app.