The initiative is part of the RiVending project, focused on the recovery and recycling of plastic cups and pallets (PS) and PET bottles for vending machines,
promoted by three important organizations dedicated to the recycling of plastic materials: CONFIDA - the Italian Association of Automatic Distribution, COREPLA - the National Consortium for the Collection, Recycling and Recovery of Plastic Packaging and UNIONPLAST - the National Union of Plastic Processing Industries.
OCME has firmly joined the program in the name of a green soul that constantly shapes the company's development and evolution: a sign of a further push towards the integration of devices and technologies that provide a decisive response to problems linked to the environment and, in this case, to European objectives for the reduction of single-use plastic.
RiVending allows to isolate materials to recover a homogeneous and high quality plastic and reintroduce them into the process of new products. Specifically, a special container is positioned next to the vending machine. Inside this cointainer it is possible to throw away plastic materials after using them. The materials are automatically stacked, through holes as large as the diameter of the cups, as well as one for sticks, reducing the volume in the same bag by over 150% compared to the collection in generic plastic. The inner bag has a different colour from the rest of the separate collection, and it is collected by the operator who sort and send them for recycling.
The material is turned into flakes or granules and reprocessed into new plastic cups, avoiding costly and time-consuming separation steps from other plastics and heavy industrial washing.
One of the objectives to achieve is to providing a virtuous "end-of-life" for plastic, in order to make sustainable the economy of the European Union .
OCME, with this initiative, aims to strengthen its position towards a correct and conscious culture of end-of-life management of plastic products. In fact, for a while already, it has been promoting a corporate culture focused on sustainability through many projects and concrete actions. Starting from company vehicles that run mainly on natural gas, from the selection and separation processes of different plastic materials to facilitate their disposal and reuse, to the photovoltaic system that saves tons of CO2 every year.
These investments clearly demonstrate OCME's intention to be part of a necessary process of change, which primarily involves the entire world of industry, and which sees in the combination of innovation and sustainability the way to continue growing.