Versalis (Milan / Italy; www.versalis.eni.com), the plastics subsidiary of Italian energy group Eni (Rome; www.eni.com), has announced the expansion of its range of renewable plastic packaging to include a food packaging grade that contains 75% post-consumer polystyrene sourced from materials collected by Italy’s national recycling consortium Corepla (Milan; www.corepla.it). The new grade was developed as part of the subsidiary’s collaboration with Forever Plast (Milan; www.foreverplast.it) announced last year, which focuses on producing polystyrene recyclate for packaging (see Plasteurope.com of 26.08.2020).

The newest application is an innovative recyclable tray suitable for food applications and made of recycled polystyrene developed by companies belonging to the industry association Pro Food (www.profooditalia.it/en). The tray is designed primarily for the meat and fish packaging market and consists of an inner layer consisting of Versalis’ “Revive PS Air F - Series Forever” material and two outer layers made from virgin polystyrene. The A-B-A functional barrier, developed in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV, Dresden / Germany; www.ivv.fraunhofer.de/en.html), is said to ensure food contact compliance.

Versalis’ Revive range comprises products made exclusively from mechanically recycled post-consumer and plastics and industrial scrap. In addition to Revive PS, the company currently markets the polymer-based products Revive EPS and Revive PE.