Italia leader in inert material recycling but lagging behind in reuse as secondary raw materials

Good at recycling, but almost last in the reuse of construction and demolition aggregates. In this framework, Italia ranks first with a recycling rate of 98%, surpassing the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Hungary and Lithuania, and in the second case last with a reuse rate of 0.4%. Outlining this scenario, which tells how in Europe "almost all construction and demolition waste is recovered, but only a few countries have managed to transform recycling into a real industrial market for secondary raw materials", is the Report February 2026 by Quattro A, a Seipa Group company.

according to Quattro A's comparative analysis of Eurostat, Ispra and national studies, the recycling rates of C&D waste (from construction and demolition) are on average high," emphasises Giorgio Mottironi, sustainability and innovation manager of the Seipa Group. "Only eight countries remain below the threshold: Spain (67.9%), Slovakia (63.2%), Portugal (61.8%), Bulgaria (61.5%), Romania (57.6%), Finland (52.8%), Sweden (51.9%) and Greece (47.6%). The gap, however, as the manager points out, emerges "on the effective substitution front, i.e. the share of recycled aggregates that actually re-enters the production cycles by replacing virgin raw materials. Only five countries exceed 25%: the Netherlands (40%), Belgium (35%), Luxembourg (30%), Denmark (28%) and Austria (25%).

Italia is one of the most emblematic cases of this gap: with a recovery rate of 98%, the replacement rate stops at 0.4%'. Reason? "The material is correctly sent for recycling," argues Mottironi, "but struggles to re-enter the market as a secondary raw material. In Europe the annual consumption of materials exceeds 1,094 million tonnes, while waste from the construction and demolition sector reaches 305 million. In Italia the production is 81.4 million tonnes per year, 50.6 per cent of special waste. According to the Report's estimates, an increase in the substitution rate towards best practice levels would save more than 20 million tonnes of virgin materials per year and about 4.6 million tonnes of CO2.

The sustainability manager gives just one example: 'Let's take the case of demolishing a building or a house, with targeted demolition all materials can be sorted,' he argues, 'iron, wood and then aggregates. These are then processed and transformed and become second raw material'.

The aggregates, after various treatments, are transformed into sand, drainage or screenings and put to use, either as a subgrade or as material for making premixes. Uses include concrete or road sub-base. "However, this is not always the case, because, very often, they end up in heaps on the sites, yet they are an important resource," he adds, "and it happens that, perhaps, new raw materials are preferred instead of these products.