Unirima, National Union of Recovery and Recycling Paper Companies, is an autonomous Association born from the merger of Unionmaceri and Federmacero to give a unitary voice to, promote and represent the two souls of the sector, such as “paper recovery/recycling plants” and “recovered paper dealers,” and, thus, represents and protects the companies active in the collection, recovery, recycling, and commercialization of paper. The waste sorting of paper and cardboard, both from the municipalities (municipal waste) and commercial, artisanal, industrial, and tertiary (special waste) activities, is conferred to the recovery/recyclying plants that are members of UNIRIMA. The paper output of those plants (raw material End of Waste) is sent to the paper mills.
The entire sector counts over 700 plants with a production of about 6,8 million tons of recycled paper. Unirima is the main and largest italian federation in this industrial sector and therefore is a reference point for this historical sector of the Italian “green” industry that since its origin has represented a perfect example of circular economy, reusing the leftovers and recycled waste for the production of new paper.
UNIRIMA attends the most important institutional and technical tables, both at the national and European level:
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- it regularly meets the Chamber of Deputies and Senate of the Republic Environment Committees, as well as the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the waste cycle and illegal activities related to it, through formal and informal hearings;
- it is part of the Market Access Barriers Coordination Table of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation;
- it is a UNI member and a member of the “paper” technical commission;
- it has its representatives on the Board of Directors of Comieco (“recyclers and/or reclaimers” category);
- it participates with representatives of the sector in the Paper and Cardboard Prices Commission of the Chamber of Commerce of Milan;
- it is part of the table instituted at the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security to examine the National Waste Management Programme, with specific reference to the criteria for identifying ‘minimum’ plants;
- it is a member of the network of stable contact persons of the ATECO Committee of ISTAT;
- it participated in the testing phase of the functioning prototype of the National Electronic Register for Waste Traceability (RENTRI) by the National Register of Environmental Managers;
- it is a member of the Technical and Scientific Committee of Ecomondo;
- it has been part of the treaty delegation for the new Anci-Comieco Technical Annex and it takes part in the working groups of the consortium, in particular on the National Agreement on the Processing of Paper and Cardboard and for the application of the Paper Technical Annex;
- it is present at the main events of the sector and supports events that interest our category;
- it takes part directly with its representatives in all institutional tables of interest in the recovery/recycling sector;
- it is a member of BIR - Bureau of International Recycling, and it is represented on the board of ERPA - European Recovered Paper Association, the paper recycling sector of Recycling Europe (EuRIC), the European Recycling Industries' Confederation, to which UNIRIMA adheres. Within Recycling Europe Unirima is also actively involved in the Environmental Regulatory Affairs (ERA) Working Group. Through these associations UNIRIMA represents the interests of the sector and qualifies its image towards the European Union and other international institutions;
- it has representatives in the European Committee CEN TC 172 / WG2 “Paper and board for recycling” of CEN and ISO.
For the associated companies, UNIRIMA:
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- gives information through circulars, documents, analysis of regulatory updates, initiatives and decisions of institutions both on the national and European level;
- provides assistance on topics related to municipal and special waste management;
- prepares opinions and intervenes in adiuvandum , supporting associated companies on specific issues;
- promotes and activates technical working groups, in-depth and update tables, industry studies;
- ensures attendance at institutional tables and working groups to draft proposals and association positions regarding measures of relevance to the sector;
- sends publications, reports, studies, research and confidential notes to associates;
- organises and promotes conferences and seminars on current topics, or concerning subjects of interest for the represented sectors.
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