Sustainable Design: The Circular Journey of PET
Corepla, F.lli Guzzini, and Costa Cruises have joined forces for an innovative circular economy project. This new initiative, presented in Civitavecchia aboard the Costa Smeralda ship, aims to enhance the value of used PET bottles by transforming them into new, sustainable, and circular design elements.
The focus on environmental sustainability begins with a cultural approach, aimed at rethinking products, services, and production processes through a circular perspective. The goal is to minimize the environmental impact of an object throughout its lifecycle. This journey involves everyone: companies, institutions, citizens, as well as visionary technicians and change-makers who interpret this change, working to identify new materials and processes that foresee the reuse of raw materials from products’ end-of-life stages, and most importantly, the new needs of society. Such is the case with plastic, which—when properly collected and recycled—can be turned into new eco-friendly and designer objects.
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The project, which began in May 2024, has already achieved significant results: nearly 40 tons of PET have been collected from three Costa Cruises ships, equivalent to about 2 million PET bottles.
Since May 2024, Costa Cruises ships docking in Civitavecchia have delivered PET bottles collected on board to the Consortium via the services of S.E.Port. This process is divided into three phases: collection, recycling, and creating new material. Corepla then delivers the bottles to a recycler who transforms them into secondary raw material (R-PET). F.lli Guzzini uses this material to create new design items, including the Tierra collection, which returns aboard Costa Cruises ships to be used by both passengers and crew members. To make one glass from the Tierra collection, 3.3 PET water bottles (1.5 liters each) are required, and within the first five months of the project, 60,000 Tierra glasses have already been loaded onto four Costa ships.
This project has strong educational value and aims to raise awareness among citizens and cruise guests about environmental issues. It also includes the installation of an eco-compactor aboard Costa Toscana—one of the three Costa ships, along with Costa Smeralda and Costa Pacifica, that regularly call at Civitavecchia. This initiative, part of the RecoPet Project, aims to further simplify the process of delivering PET bottles on board. The bottles deposited in the eco-compactor will then be recycled and transformed into new design objects.
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Giuseppe Carino, Senior Vice President of Guest Experience and Onboard Sales Operations at Costa Cruises, stated: “Resource regeneration is one of the pillars of Costa Cruises’ sustainability strategy. On our ships, we carry out comprehensive waste classification, integrated into an approach that aims to implement circular economy projects, even exceeding existing regulatory requirements. In particular, about 80% of the PET offloaded from our ships is destined for recycling. The project we launched in Civitavecchia with Corepla and Guzzini represents another step forward, as it is a true circular journey that starts and ends on our ships, transforming used PET bottles into elegant design items used in our restaurants“.
“Supporting high-quality separate waste collection projects through a real circular economy model allows us to promote cultural values related to environmental sustainability while creating a practical example of shared responsibility“, said Antonio Protopapa, Director of Operations Management at Corepla. “The separate collection of plastic packaging has now reached excellence levels, and we are now aiming to increase the collection of PET bottles and demonstrate that ecological and energy transition must involve a shift in thinking where companies and designers collaborate to design increasingly circular products, engaging the community in selective collection processes“.
Sergio Grasso, CEO of Fratelli Guzzini, commented: “Being among the key players in creating a complete cycle that fully expresses the concept of a circular economy is a significant and exciting achievement for us, as it reflects our values of ethics and corporate responsibility. Our company has been a pioneer in using recycled post-consumer plastics, and this virtuous triangle formed with Corepla and Costa Cruises demonstrates once again that, while much can be achieved alone, infinitely more can be done together“.
1. Costa Smeralda day 2 – Copia
The Tierra collection, designed by Pio & Tito Toso, is the first tableware collection in the world made by recycling everyday disposable water bottles. It represents a true revolution in terms of material and style, resulting from a gradual process that involved researching materials suitable for food contact, resistant to high temperatures, and dishwasher safe. These made-in-Italy items showcase the expertise of a company that has always worked with plastic materials and now does so while preserving the environment and creating beauty using recycled and recyclable post-consumer materials with enhanced functional performance.
Costa Cruises’ special participation in this new initiative is the result of its commitment to promoting sustainable, inclusive, and high-quality tourism, a field in which the Italian company has been a pioneer in the cruise industry. Specifically, 100% waste categorization is carried out on board Costa ships, and where possible, these wastes are sent for recycling.
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