The Plastic Observatory, Osservatorio Plastica, was born from an idea of Carlo Alberto Pratesi, of the Department of Business Economics of Roma Tre University, and Antonio Feola, Sustainability Manager of Unionfood, as a response to European Union Directive 904/2019 aimed at reducing the environmental impacts of various disposable plastic objects.
The mission of the Observatory is to address the issue of plastics and its management with a scientific rather than demagogic approach. The University of Roma Tre aims to be a third-party facilitator in relations between various parties contributing to the Observatory, as well as a mediator between businesses and civil society, processing and redistributing information and data from companies and research centres, and producing informative materials suitable for use in communication and education activities. The main parties involved in the initiative are companies producing rigid and flexible plastic packaging and food products that use plastic as the raw material for their packaging, those that deal with the end of life of products and recycling, and those marketing products through vending machines.
Goals
- To research, collect, analyse and disseminate, on an ongoing basis, information, data and best practices on the subject of plastics and initiatives by companies and institutions aimed at improving environmental sustainability;
- To collect, produce and disseminate reliable information and opinions on the issue of the sustainability of plastic, as a material for the production of goods, component parts and packaging;
- To become established as a centre of expertise and cross-fertilization between universities and businesses;
- To produce information useful for companies and institutions in making decisions about plastics use based on scientific evidence and a systemic approach.