Prevention: actions to reduce the environmental impact

The main activity of the National Steel Consortium is to prevent, promote and facilitate the collection and recycling of used steel packaging coming from domestic or industrial users. In particular, RICREA carries out the following institutional activities throughout Italy: raising awareness among users of steel packaging, verifying the collection flows of steel packaging, ensuring that the collected material is recycled.

The results achieved by the CONAI system and supply chain consortia show continuous progress every year. In terms of steel packaging, RICREA has abundantly exceeded the legal objectives for several years, achieving 72% of packaging recovered out of the total released for consumption in 2021.

However, improvement in the capacity to intercept packaging waste and to send it for recycling does not always compensate for the growth in volumes of packaging released for use. It is therefore necessary to develop a system that can reduce the quantities of packaging produced, preventing it from becoming waste. This need is increasingly evident.

But prevention also means reducing the environmental impact deriving from the processes used to create the products.

Indeed, the law provides that: “waste management must be carried out according to the principles of precaution, prevention, proportionality, accountability and cooperation among all the subjects involved in the production, distribution, use and consumption of the goods that give rise to waste.” (art.178 of Italian Legislative Decree 152/06).

European directives identify the priority interventions to be implemented in the prevention and reduction of waste production in order to correctly and sustainably manage the waste problem (see the pyramid shown above).

The initiatives that all subjects, public and private, are required to implement to pursue this objective are also described. Among them, we mention: the development of clean technologies, which allow a more rational use and greater saving of resources; the development of products designed to contribute as little as possible (during production, distribution and use) to increasing the amount of waste; the introduction of environmental certification and product life cycle analysis systems; the promotion of training, information and consumer awareness activities.

Commitment to prevention

The prevention commitment of the steel packaging supply chain and the RICREA Consortium is demonstrated by their activities, as listed below:

  • Optimisation of the weight-to-surface ratio of steel packaging.
  • Promotion of the reuse of steel packaging.
  • Labelling of steel packaging.
  • Improved packaging performance through multiple creasing*, deep drawing** and new geometric configurations.
  • Participation in inter-consortium work tables on the subject, with Italian and European trade associations (ANFIMA and MPE).

* enhancing the strength and tightness of steel packaging, made with sheets of ever decreasing thickness.
** technological process through which a sheet is plastically deformed, allowing considerable benefits both in terms of material used (less processing waste) and harmful emissions (avoiding energy-intensive production processes, such as welding).

The optimisation of the weight-to-surface ratio
The optimisation of the weight-to-surface ratio of steel packaging is the objective on which the sector has focussed its greatest efforts and obtained the most evident results, also thanks to the technological innovations offered over time by the iron and steel industry. It is important to remember how the reduction in packaging weight translates into an economic advantage for the producers, in terms of reduction of the CAC environmental contribution, which is proportional with the reduction in weight.

Examples of weight reduction of steel packaging and steel packaging components

Labelling and recognition of recyclability
RICREA is also committed to the issue of environmental labelling of packaging, another important step for prevention, because providing consumers with clear, correct information avoids waste dispersion or incorrect separation of packaging waste.
As part of the inter-consortium working group on prevention, RICREA contributed to the publication of the Guidelines on the environmental labelling of packaging, written to give answers to the labelling obligation imposed by Italian Legislative Decree no. 116, and of the Guidelines for the voluntary environmental labelling of packaging, prepared to guide companies in the correct and conscious use of voluntary environmental claims.

Marking of steel packaging

“Environmental labels” play a fundamental role in facilitating the recovery and recycling of packaging. These labels seek to be both exhaustive in content but also simple and clear, so that end consumers know where and how to recover or recycle such packaging.

“Steel is a GREEN material, i.e. totally recyclable. Any steel product, at the end of its life cycle, can be completely reused an infinite number of times. Steel, and metals in general, are resources, therefore always available and permanent.”

RICREA is continuing its collaboration with Anfima and the European trade associations, gathered in MPE (Metal Packaging Europe), in order to support the above statement. Metal packaging is collected and recycled throughout Europe, reaching a very high recycling percentage, over 70%, also thanks to the activity carried out by the various European consortia similar to RICREA. An initiative RICREA is looking at closely is the development of a new brand: Metal Recycles Forever, owned by MPE. Precisely for this purpose, a working group was set up in 2018 in collaboration with ANFIMA and CIAL, with the aim of spreading and promoting the use of the logo among steel packaging producers and their customers. Based on an analysis carried out by ANFIMA, among its associates in 2020, there appear to be on average 1 billion steel and aluminium packaging items placed on the Italian market every year with the MRF logo.