Extrusion International 2-2023

18 Extrusion International 2/2023 INDUSTRY NEWS Acquisition  Piovan Group's strengthening continues with further expansion into Germany, Europe's reference market for plastics by supporting German ProTec's systems – ensuring continuity and qualified assistance to some of the company's customers. Piovan Group acquires a selection of assets of German competitor Pro - tec Polymer Processing GmbH, an international supplier of systems for the plastics industry, currently in re- ceivership. The transaction involves certain assets previously belonging to ma- terial handling, dosing and Recy- cling divisions – markets where the Piovan Group itself operates and is world leader in the production of systems for automating production processes with plastic, recycled plas- tic and bio-plastic materials. The transaction will take place through the controlled FDM with the triple purpose of: increasing the Service/post-sale activities, offering customers upgrades and retrofits of old Protec systems with new Pio - van Group solutions, and support- ing joint customers in the difficult situation caused by the bankruptcy proceedings of ProTec Polymer Pro- cessing GmbH. Piovan Group, which is actively engaged in the development of products and solutions dedicated to the recycling and circular economy supply chain, going forward will also supply Protec’s solutions in the recycling field, such as plastic regen- eration and crystallization. In line with the group strategy the transaction strengthens the Piovan Group's presence in the German market and in the key strategic seg- ment of after sales services. “Protec, previously Somos, is among the oldest European compa- nies operating in automation for plas- tic and recycle plastic industry with a large installed base of unique solu- tions and a well-established customer base,” says Filippo Zuppichin, CEO of Piovan Group, “It is a great honour and responsibility for Piovan Group and FDM to continue such an impor - tant tradition and offer their custom - ers the possibility of enjoying such a long technological partnership.” “For FDM it is an important step to further expand and establish the service area. We are pleased to be able to offer all customers the usual service in the field of service and spare parts supply,” says Guido Faust, General Manager of FDM. Piovan S.p.A. www.piovan.com Filippo Zuppichin Digital Platform for the Closed-Loop Recycling of Plastic Food Packaging  Only 9% of the 4,372 kt of plas- tic used in packaging each year in Germany are recyclates. And it is pre - cisely in the case of food packaging that the safe use of recyclates is more difficult. The reason for this is often a lack of information on the recyclate content and recyclate quality of the existing packaging. SKZ, together with six consortium partners, wants to change this in the research project "Open Circular-Collaboration-Plat- form for Sustainable Food Packaging from Plastics", or COPPA for short. In the project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), an open platform is to be developed that pro - vides information on secondary ma - terials throughout the entire cycle by means of a digital product passport, thus paving the way for the circular management of food packaging made of plastics. The amount of waste generated from packaging is steadily increas- ing. Particularly in the case of plas- tic packaging for food, there is still great potential for material avoid- ance and recycling. In addition to technical challenges, the main ob- stacles are lack of transparency and information on the origin, quality, quantity and future availability of recyclates. The project objective of COPPA is therefore the devel - opment and demonstration of an open and scalable Circular Collabo - ration Platform (CCP). The CCP is a cross-company information con- cept that recyclers, reprocessors and converters of plastics, packag- ing manufacturers, brand owners and food retailers use to establish a seamless tracking of plastics from packaging. The CCP enables ac- curate and efficient information exchange on the recyclate content and quality of plastic packaging. At the same time, by linking relevant environmental information, COP- PA makes the increase in individual and industry sustainability perfor - mance calculable and provable for sound communication. The proj - ect result is intended to represent a practical demonstrator that will be accessible to all companies in the entire food chain at the end of the implementation phase. COPPA is thus intended to drive forward the circular economy in the area of plastic food packaging, conserve natural resources by reducing the use of materials and the associated reduction in the use of fossil raw materials, and contribute to cli- mate protection. In addition to the project con - sortium, other associated partners from the "plastic packaging for food" value chain are indispensable