GSE ITALY PRESENTS VETROPACK’S NEW PRODUCTION FACILITY IN BOFFALORA SOPRA TICINO

GSE Italia has developed for Vetropack, a Swiss company and one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of glass packaging, a sustainable hollow glass production facility, redeveloping a 347,000 sqm industrial site in Boffalora Sopra Ticino, approximately half of which is dedicated to the production facilities themselves.

The new plant was built on a brownfield site in compliance with the highest sustainability standards and according to a policy of integration with the surrounding area. With the clear objective of avoiding additional land consumption, GSE Italia supported Vetropack in selecting and redeveloping a deindustrialized 347,000 sqm site, coordinating the complete remediation of land contaminated by sludge, asbestos, and concrete structures. The process involved the demolition of 20 existing buildings and the reuse of a significant portion of the resulting demolition materials.
Following the demolition works, the demolished materials were crushed and reused on-site as secondary raw materials, for a total of approximately 120,000 m³, while contaminated materials were properly remediated.

The project included the construction of an operational hot end equipped with two highly efficient melting furnaces, a cold end dedicated to quality control, and a two-storey warehouse for finished product storage. The buildings were designed with employee well-being at their core, carefully considering the ergonomics of production spaces through a dedicated colour scheme for flooring, walls, roofs, and façades. Solutions were also implemented to reduce noise emissions below legal thresholds through optimized internal acoustics and to ensure a comfortable indoor microclimate for workers through specific ventilation and heat extraction systems that do not require additional electricity consumption.

The new facility integrates seamlessly into the local landscape thanks to a site layout that respects the area’s natural morphology. Much of the design effort focused on selecting technologies capable of reducing operational energy and water consumption, addressing the significant resource requirements inherent in the glass manufacturing process.

This led to the adoption of solutions that maximize resource efficiency and significantly reduce the company’s environmental impact. These include a heat recovery system that captures energy generated by the melting furnaces and a closed-loop water circuit designed to minimize groundwater extraction while continuously filtering and treating the water.

In addition, it was particularly important for the Municipality, in agreement with Vetropack and with the support of GSE Italia, to include community-focused initiatives within the project in terms of environmental design and sustainable development of the area. As part of the project, a 35,000 sqm public park was created along the Naviglio Grande canal, together with a 2.5 km cycle path connecting the new facility and public park to the existing cycling network. Finally, to avoid impacting local traffic, large internal parking areas were built for company vehicles, alongside a public parking facility.

The project holds strategic importance for Italy’s manufacturing excellence and, due to its complexity in terms of construction, permitting procedures, and investment value, it is undoubtedly one of the most significant industrial projects completed in Italy in 2023.