"The European Union, and therefore part of the public opinion in Europe, believes that plastic packaging is the basis of marine and land pollution. Nothing could be further from the truth! They should take a closer look at what comes out of a washing machine and make sure that filters against nanoplastics are applied as soon as possible," said Rocco De Lucia, owner of Siropack, an Italian company that produces packaging technologies for both paper and cardboard packaging, as well as for other materials, including plastics.
Rocco De Lucia
"Even if the packaging industry completely transitioned to paper, nothing would change. Therefore, I can express my thoughts without bias. We have a research laboratory (Tailor) in our company, attached to the University of Bologna, where we carry out scientific tests on a regular basis. One of them shows that washing a simple towel (70x137 cm) emits about 110 milligrams of nanoplastics. If you then add up all the washings of every European household in a year, you understand where the pollution of the seas and oceans comes from. It does not come from fruit and vegetable wrappings."
The results that were just mentioned can be found in this study that Siropack funded and that FreshPlaza readers can download here for free.
The first page of the research
"With just a filter in every washing machine, the discharge of nanoplastics would be reduced by 80%. And probably with more powerful filters not available in our Tailor Laboratory, the reduction could be close to 100%."
Professor Augusto Bianchini of the University of Bologna, coordinator of the Tailor Laboratory
"I believe that every company, every entrepreneur also has a social and not just an economic role. We want our innovations that come out of the Tailor Laboratory to be useful, to serve society, and to contribute to the improvement of the sector. Research achieves its objective when uncertainty culminates in feasible ideas. Finally, I would like to highlight the mismatch between having a Europe dominated by personal interests and our research in materials based on scientific objectivity," concluded De Lucia.
For more information: 
Siropack Italia S.r.l.
Via Balitrona 22/C
47042 Cesenatico (FC)
Tel.: +39 0547 671116
Email: info@siropack.it
www.siropack.it