Ready by June 2026 in the Pettoranello area the new Res

When, in the second half of next year, the new chemical recycling plant for plastics at Pettoranello del Molise will be ready, the first in Italy of this industrial size and among the few with such a level of integration and complementarity in Europe, Res (a company listed on the Milan Stock Exchange and based in the industrial area of Pettoranello del Molise) will have taken a further step forward in that path of innovation summarised in the company acronym: sustainable ethical recovery. This is thanks to pyrolysis, the chemical process of transforming plastic into a kind of naphtha equivalent to virgin, coming from recycling, which can be used as the basis for chemical syntheses, leading to the production of new plastics, which in turn can again be processed indefinitely. A total investment of nearly 40 million, 9.6 million of which was financed through the NRP. "The new plant will be able to integrate mechanical recycling," says Antonio Lucio Valerio, CEO of the Molise-based company, "which has been the business of most waste management companies since the 1980s, with chemical recycling, through innovative technologies appropriate for the different types of materials. A process that today allows RES to completely cover the waste cycle and, in particular, to recover all plastic fractions.

A vision that, added to the transparency of the financial statements and clear governance, guaranteed by the listing of Res on the Euronext Growth market of the Italian Stock Exchange, convinced Shell to sign a multi-year contract aimed at acquiring the entire production of pyrolysis oil (about 16 thousand tonnes per year) for a value of over 20 million per year. A new business that from 2026 will significantly increase Res's turnover, today stable at 30 million and with an Ebitda that rose from 3 million in 2022 to 10.3 million last year.

It is called Polymeres, the centre dedicated to research and development activities, 2,700 square metres in the Pozzilli hub, where seven researchers work in the service of the group's three plant poles (the other two are located in Pettoranello and Tufo Colonoco), closely connected with some of Italy's leading universities (including the Federico II of Naples and the University of Molise) and major Italian technological centres, including the CNR. The research and development activities implemented are all functional to the implementation of new industrial initiatives in the circular economy and to serve as technology transfer to plants already in operation.

In this sense, R&D's activities are also aimed at the production of innovative fabrics and textiles from recycled plastic in various fields of application, from automotive to aeronautics to technical textiles and protection for the fashion industry. The Ceo is looking at the scalability of projects, with the aim of being a privileged interlocutor of the chemical industry, which is increasingly directed towards zero waste: Isernia remains central in the strategies of the Valerio family, entrepreneurs in the waste sector since 1989, who also manage a landfill site at the Tufo Colonoco site, which treats special non-hazardous waste, a mechanical-biological treatment plant, a composting plant and a small biogas plant.

Res still has other objectives. The first is related to the EU regulations on the use of materials from scrapped vehicles in the automotive industry, and to this end, a highly innovative business unit has been set up in Pozzilli to deal with upcycling: the recovered materials will be treated and recycled through both mechanical and chemical processes, partly re-entering the automotive production cycle and partly revalorised as new raw materials, while the non-reusable part will be sent to the other disposal plants managed by the Group. In addition, Res is investing in the construction of a hydrogen production plant: the Res-H2 project has obtained funding from the Molise Region in the amount of EUR 5 million, 100% non-repayable, and envisages the construction of an advanced hydrogen production plant with a purity of 99.9% and two photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of about 2.7 MW. It will be commissioned by the first half of 2026 and the hydrogen produced will be partly used to power company vehicles. "Today there are only a few Italian hydrogen producers," explains Valerio, "and we want to acquire expertise in this area as well and lay the foundations for building plants that can produce hydrogen from waste using suitable technical processes.