In 2021, market contraction and new European regulations on single-use plastic tableware pushed the owners of the Dopla plant in Manfredonia—a leader in plastic tableware production—to progressively reduce activities until a complete halt on March 30, 2023, leaving 67 employees without work.
A group of 31 workers, with the support of Legacoop Puglia, decided to launch an ambitious project: transforming the crisis into an opportunity. They put everything on the line: their savings, severance pay (TFR), and advance unemployment benefits (NASPI). As explained by the shift supervisor and now president of the Coopla Green cooperative, Giovanni Guerra: "We are not entrepreneurs; we are workers with families who want to defend their jobs."
Thanks to the Workers Buyout mechanism, which allows employees to take over a company in crisis by forming a cooperative, they participated in public tenders to acquire machinery and the plant, with the support of CFI, Coopfond, and the Puglia Region. At the end of 2024, during the Christmas period, they launched the crowdfunding campaign “For Christmas, give a company to its workers,” which raised over €100,000 in one month. Their case reached Parliament, and major national newspapers took interest, amplifying the appeal.
In the following months, Coopla Green's consultants and employees analyzed markets, studied materials compliant with new European directives and potential commercial outlets, and built a solid industrial plan validated by local and national institutions. They chose to convert production toward compostable and certified materials, anticipating the demands of a market increasingly focused on sustainability.
They had an additional asset beyond the funds that were progressively released: over twenty years of experience in the molding and converting sector of single-use tableware. On September 1, 2025, they returned to the plant, but this time as worker-entrepreneurs, members of their own cooperative, supported by finance, marketing, and sales professionals.
Since May 2026, Coopla Green has been in full production, with new advanced machinery, raw materials including certified bioplastics, and a new range of products.
Innovation
Coopla Green stems from a concrete choice for sustainable innovation: regenerating an industrial experience, safeguarding jobs, and converting production toward certified and traceable compostable bioplastic single-use products.
The cooperative is developing a production model based on three pillars: environmental traceability of products, a path toward energy self-sufficiency via photovoltaics, and carbon footprint measurement. These are complemented by a new applied research line dedicated to WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), featuring semi-automatic systems for the dismantling, repair, and recovery of components and materials.
For Coopla Green, innovating means combining technology, environmental responsibility, and cooperative participation, transforming the Manfredonia plant into a circular manufacturing laboratory for Southern Italy.
