The paper recycling system linked to the circular economy is still not working as it should. A historic company like Lucart then decides to strengthen itself in Spain. Buy three establishments; plans 20 million euros of investments; confirms what the trade association - Assocarta of Confindustria - has been supporting for some time: regulatory uncertainty and bureaucratic obstacles make it difficult to support circular economy projects in Italy.
Massimo Pasquini, CEO of Lucart, said he had chosen a site in the Basque Country capable of producing high quality recycled paper, precisely to reduce the entrepreneurial risks associated with Italy. The Tuscan company has acquired the assets of the Spanish group Cel Technologies & System creating the new Lucart Tissue & Soap SLU. The three factories are located near Bilbao and employ 146 people and over the next five years will give substance to the 20 million business plan.
The foreign operation is linked to the history of an Italian excellence born in Tuscany in the '30s with a series of quality brands, which has accepted the challenge of the circular economy, of recycling for energy purposes. The Spanish choice certainly does not strengthen the path of the Italian energy strategy outlined by the Renzi and Gentiloni governments. We are at the beginning of a complex journey that will have many stages, but on which positions such as those of Assocarta will have their weight.
On the recovery cycle, industrialists are urging politics to do better. Every year Italian companies treat about 5 million tons of paper with energy recovery systems. As is the case in France, Germany, Sweden and – precisely in Spain – companies want more guarantees on the recovery of waste, to increase quantities. Solutions that politics must offer to 200 workers who have a turnover of 7 billion euros a year. Within the production cycles today there are limits on the paper to be recycled as a raw material. Therefore, the possibility of closing the entire cycle inside industrial sites is being requested.
If more waste could be recovered – this is the Confindustria thesis – waste would be drastically reduced. National limits on treatment are beginning to condition important investment programs such as those of Lucart which uses them to go outside Italy. Help can come from the recent package of European directives on waste and the circular economy. In a more limited area, agreements have been signed with the Regions in recent weeks. But the new Parliament will have to worry about passing paper packaging from the current 80% to 85%.
