Biella, 21 June 2024 – The CCH CircularPET production plant in Gaglianico (BI) of Coca-Cola HBC Italia, the main manufacturer and distributor of The Coca-Cola Company brand products on the national territory, today hosted the institutional visit of the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, welcomed by the company's representatives Stefano Lorenzon, Director of the CCHCP plant in Gaglianico, and Giangiacomo Pierini, Director of Corporate Affairs & Sustainability of Coca-Cola HBC Italia.
The visit made it possible to tell and describe to the institutions the cutting-edge technologies used in the plant which, thanks to an investment of over 30 million euros, the largest of the Coca-Cola HBC Group, has been transformed from a disused factory into an industrial plant of excellence in Italy in the field of circular economy, capable of transforming up to 30,000 tons of plastic per year into new 100% recycled PET (rPET) bottles, quantities such as to meet the company's soft drink production needs in Italy. A factory that employs over 60 people and whose existence had been put at risk by the first proposal for a European Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWR), circulated at the end of 2023 and strongly focused on reuse instead of recycling packaging.
The Minister was also presented with the main results in the field of environmental sustainability reported in the twentieth CSR Report of Coca-Cola HBC Italia, "Let's celebrate the world of tomorrow together", just published by the company. These include the introduction in 2023 of 100% recycled plastic (rPET)[1] bottles for all soft drinks; the 38% reduction in the intensity of emissions in Scope 1 and Scope 2 Market Based compared to 2010, achieved as part of the international NetZeroby40 program; the Gold Alliance for Water Stewardship level certification, which recognizes responsible management of water resources, obtained by all soft drink production factories and the Fonti del Vulture mineral water bottling plant in Rionero in Vulture (PZ).
Giangiacomo Pierini, Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Director of Coca-Cola HBC Italia, said: "Italy is a leader in Europe for packaging recycling and our factory in Gaglianico represents a concrete and tangible example of attention to the circular economy by the beverage industry. The first proposal for a European Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWR) would have profoundly questioned the Italian recycling model and, with it, the very existence of this factory. The intervention of the Government, in particular of the team led by Minister Pichetto Fratin, has made it possible to arrive at a proposal for a Regulation closer to the peculiarities of the Italian system, demonstrating the Government's desire to support a supply chain that represents excellence for our country and of which, through our factory, we are a part".
Biella and Piedmont - a region that is also home to the Lurisia mineral water bottling factory in Roccaforte di Mondovì (CN) - are central to Coca-Cola's strategy and this is demonstrated by the data of an SDA Bocconi School of Management research which shows that, in 2022, they amount to 37 million euros (0.03% of regional GDP) the resources generated and distributed by Coca-Cola to the main players in the regional economy in the form of salaries, purchases of goods and services, investments, taxes and contributions. In Piedmont, Coca-Cola also creates, directly and through its related industries, 3,011 jobs (0.2% of the total employment in the region), while the network of suppliers is represented by 16% large companies, 27% by medium-sized enterprises, 46% by small enterprises and 10% by micro enterprises.
[1] Excludes cap and label