RiVending, aims to create a true circular economy in the vending industry by recovering and recycling plastic cups and stirrers for vending machines.

This innovative project, promoted by the Italian Vending Association (CONFIDA) as well as a range of other passionate partners, has been launched in the city of Parma. The project objectives are to promote sustainability through the recycling of plastic cups used in vending machines by creating a “full product circle” and a more efficient circular economy.

Specifically, once vending consumers have enjoyed their coffee, they are invited to dispose of the plastic cups and stirrers (made exclusively of polystyrene) into a separate collection bin, so that they are not collected with mixed plastic products. The new green plastic bag will be collected together with the generic yellow bags (used in Parma for generic plastic packaging) by Iren, a private company that manages the integrated waste cycle in the province of Parma. In this way, selection process of materials is avoided, allowing the easier recovery of high quality and valuable plastic in order to make new products. The final goal of the project is to use this recycled material to make new cups for vending; thus creating an efficient example of circular economy.

Cups and stirrers used in vending have a range of technical features that ensure reliable dispensing by automatic vending machines. In addition, these products are used and disposed on the spot once consumed at the machine – so they can be easily recovered and cleaned, because they contain mostly coffee residues that can be eliminated with a simple washing.
The Rivending project will make it easier and cheaper to collect and recycle these vending specific cups as compared to what is done today.

The President of CONFIDA Massimo Trapletti explained, “The single-use plastic products of our sector have always been recovered and recycled by the collection of plastics because the locations where we consume our products are 97% [in] closed places (offices, factories, universities, hospitals and public offices). But today we want to go a step further, creating a separate recycling circuit, a closed circuit that can lead to a complete circular economy in a few years.”

The RiVending pilot project sponsored by the municipality of Parma, has been organised locally by EVA Member FLO Spa a leading European manufacturer of disposable cups, two major Italian vending operators, and with the support of Iren. It is already active with 250 Rivending bins in 30 different locations in Parma including in the Municipality of Parma, the University of Parma, IREN and Barilla SpA buildings. Once this pilot phase is completed, the further goal will be to extend RiVending to the entire town of Parma and later to involve also other provinces of the Italian territory.

The full project partners are CONFIDA, COREPLA (National Consortium for Collection and Recovery of Plastic Packaging), UNIONPLAST (National Association of Plastics Transforming Industries), Molinari Buonristoro and GeSA Vending (Vending operators), Iren and FLO Spa.

The EVA commends this as an excellent example of a circular economy project for the vending industry, and looks forward to the launch of further similar projects in other European markets.