Italy: On Track to Reach the 2025 Targets
With 175 million tons produced, Italy shows the fourth highest amount of waste. On the other side, the country has one of the highest recycling rates in the EU. In 2021, the country recycled at least 51.3 percent of its municipal waste. According to the latest report of the Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile (Sustainable Development Foundation), the country even recycled 72 percent of all waste collected – compared to the European average of around 58 percent.
The waste production rates differ between the regions: In quantitative terms, northern Italy produced almost 14.2 million tons, central Italy over 6.3 million tons, and southern Italy over 9.1 million tons. The recycling quote varies too: The northern regions present a share of 71.8 percent with a peak in Venetia of 87.2 percent. The middle offers a rate of 61.5 percent, while the southern is listed with 57.7 percent, including Sicilia with 51.5 percent.
Landfill share decreased
Although Italy has generated about 30 million tons of municipal waste annually since 2015 and kept a stable amount of waste sent to incineration, its landfill share decreased from 26.5 to 20.9 percent between 2015 and 2019. At the same time, Italy reduced the total tonnage of landfilled waste from 7.8 to 6.3 million tons – the landfilling rate of municipal waste in 2020 was still twice as high as the target for 2035. Simultaneously, the material recycling rate and composting/digestion increased from 44 to 51 percent. The 2022 report of ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale) presents data proving that in 2021 two-thirds of the municipalities achieved a separate collection rate higher than 65 percent. But this does not apply to all Italian regions.
High capture rates certified
According to the ISPRA-Report, the separate collection waste in 2021 consisted of 7.3 million tons (mt) of biowaste, 3.6 mt of paper and cardboard, 2.2 mt of glass and 1.6 mt of plastics. Among the other recyclable materials, there is wood (1 mt), bulky waste (0.9 mt), C&D waste (0.3 mt), metals (0.3 mt), WEE (0.3 mt) and textiles (0.1 mt). The official EU paper on “Early warning assessment related to the 2025 targets for municipal waste and packaging waste” from June 2022 certifies high capture rates for the different municipal waste fractions in Italy. They express the relation between the different waste materials and their separately collected amounts. In 2019, they ranged from 22 percent for textiles and 44 percent for plastics to 56 percent for metals, 59 percent for paper and cardboard as well as 68 for bio-waste. The capture rates of wood totaled 86 percent and 88 percent of glass.
Target of 2035 already reached
Meanwhile, the treatment of paper, cardboard, and paper packaging has reached a quota of 85 percent recycling, a target expected by 2035. In 2021, Italy even went beyond the target with a recycling rate of 87.3 percent; the European average lies at 73.9 percent. Surpassing the targets of 2025 (50 percent) and 2030 (60 percent), the recycling of aluminum packaging in 2022 has already achieved 73.6 percent. The separation machinery producer Ecostar estimates that more than 80 percent of glass packaging and over 85 percent of paper and cardboard packaging were recycled in 2023.
In 2021, there were 657 active urban waste management plants, with the majority (293) dedicated to composting, while 37 and 14 facilities were installed for incineration or co-incineration, respectively. Concerning the recovery or recycling of 765,000 tons of organic waste per year, Italian facilities can produce more than 25,000 cubic meters of biomethane per hour. According to Ecostar, the Italian plastic material recycling market is “rather dynamic”: It involves over 350 companies, including waste collectors and sorters, and industrial waste handlers (urban waste collection companies are excluded). Additionally, there are 200 producers of secondary raw materials.
37 incineration plants for urban waste
The volume of municipal waste collected and sent to landfill in Italy totaled 5.2 million metric tons in 2022. The number of landfill sites for municipal waste has been reduced from 126 to 117. At the same time, the number of waste incineration plants for urban waste came to 37. The problem is that 26 of them are located in the north. Conversely, this means that most of the municipal waste in the south is landfilled and only partially recycled or energetically reused. The 2020 edition of the Urban Waste Report of ISPRA shows that the north produced 14.4 million tons of MSW, of which 11 percent went to landfill. The center achieved 6.5 million tons of which 29 percent were disposed of on the ground, while in the south 9.1 million tons of waste were produced and 31 percent discarded in landfills. So, a larger part of the 4.5 million MWh of electrical energy and 2.1 million MWh of heat came from the north.
According to the 2022 “Report on Waste from Economic Activities,” the total volume of industrial waste managed in Italy in 2020 amounts to nearly 147 million tons. Of this total, 137.1 million tons, or 93 percent constitute non-hazardous waste, while 9.8 million tons i.e. six percent were qualified as hazardous waste. According to operational services offering company Sfridoo, the non-hazardous industrial waste in Italy was primarily produced by construction (45.1 percent), by waste treatment and remediation activities (26.3 percent), by manufacturing activities (18.2 percent) and several treatments in the single-digit range. The waste amounts are mostly treated by material recovery (70.6 percent), landfill (6.2 percent) or other disposal operations (10.3 percent), co-incineration (1.1 percent) and other incineration activities.
Well organized by consortia
As the German trade and investment company gtai underlines, the recyclable packaging material both from households and companies is well organized by the consortia Ricrea (steel), Cial (aluminum), Comieco (paper), Rilegno (wood), Corepla (plastic), Biorepack (bio-plastic) and Coreve (glass); the separation of textiles is envisaged for 2025. This system is said to be exemplary and successful in means of recovery. The National Aluminum Packaging Consortium (Cial), collaborating with Italian municipalities, now has 243 affiliated companies, 430 contracted operators and 246 platforms nationwide. Eco-Star balances: “According to a survey of 534 companies, in 2021, the sector’s turnover reached around 13.5 billion Euro, employing over 97,000 workers.” Several plans exist for constructing multi-million-dollar facilities to convert local or foreign waste to bio-methanol and hydrogen.
The Waste Management Services in Italy’s industry is valued at 1.8 Billion Euro and ranked first in Europe in 2024 (of 23 total EU countries) as well as the industry’s rank as first has remained the same since 2019. Of course, Italy’s Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilbert Pichettoon is proud of his country. Meanwhile, there are “192 projects for flagship investments in the circular economy” and a system “that never stops investing in sustainability, obtaining flattering results”, he told the news agency Reuters at the World Recycling Day in March 2023. A paper from the EU Commission regarding the Italian “state of play” declares: “In view of recent increases in recycling rates and implemented actions and investments, additional progress is expected.”
Investments are running
There is financial support. According to the online newspaper L’Eco di Bergamo, in 2021 “investments in the waste sector in Italy are running, as had never happened before”. The total amount of investments reached 912 million Euro and the 124 top players recorded an aggregate production value of 10.26 billion Euro. Another financial source is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), part of the EU Commission’s REPowerEU Plan, which includes a reform and investment plan for Italy to “become more sustainable, resilient and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities offered by the green and digital transitions”. As Italy’s major challenges require the “improvement in the management of waste and water resources”, the transition is supported by 27.7 billion Euro for the “development of renewable energies and the circular economy and improvement in waste and water management”, aiming amongst others at the increase of the recycling rate. Finally, there might be funds resulting from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PPNR) offering opportunities to create a more competitive system based on sustainable development and digital innovation.
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 3/2024, Page 29, Photo: meineresterampe / pixabay.com)
