Nextchem, a MAIRE Group company and part of the Sustainable Technology Solutions business unit, has brought circular economy principles into sharp focus at the exhibition “The New State of Materials”, curated by Materially and staged at Stecca3 in Milan’s Isola district alongside design partner Lazzerini.

 

At the centre of the showcase: a public transport seat made entirely from 100% recycled plastic. 

 

The project is the result of collaboration between Nextchem and Lazzerini, merging industrial innovation with Italian design to prove that post-consumer plastic can be reborn as a high-performance material—durable, functional, and visually refined—before re-entering the production cycle again at end-of-life.

 

The process begins with post-consumer plastic waste, regenerated through Nextchem’s proprietary NX Replast technology. Key to the system is MyReplast Industries, Nextchem’s advanced recycling company based in Bedizzole (Brescia), which operates as a major European hub for plastics regeneration.

 

NX Replast upgrades incoming plastic through an upcycling process that enhances material performance, producing high-grade recycled polymers tailored to specific industrial needs. The result meets Lazzerini’s strict requirements for strength, durability, and aesthetics—while ensuring the material remains part of a closed-loop system.

 

In this model, nothing is final. Even the finished seat is designed with its next life in mind, returning to MyReplast Industries at end-of-life to be recycled again, closing the loop.

 

Fabio Fritelli, Managing Director of Nextchem, commented: “The transition becomes real only when technology can be translated into concrete industrial solutions. Our role is to enable this step forward: turning waste into a valuable resource and making circularity a daily experience – scalable, replicable and measurable – without compromising performance.”