The 3 Rs drive investment, innovation and new business

In Italy, the ecological transition is no longer just a chapter of sustainability: it has become an industrial strategy. The 3Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle - now drive investment, innovation and new business models. The impetus also comes from the Clean Industrial Deal, which aims to double the rate of circularity by 2030, and the Circular Economy Act, which should come into force in 2026, with the aim of accelerating the circular transition, increasing the supply of and demand for secondary raw materials and encouraging European industry to develop circularity.

Despite the recent crisis in the plastic recycling industry, according to the Circular Economy Network's 2025 Report on the Circular Economy in Italy, our country maintains a top position in Europe: second in terms of circularity index (65.2 points), behind only the Netherlands (70.6). A leadership built on improving efficiency: in 2023 in Italy for every kg of resources consumed 4.3 euros of GDP will be generated, a figure higher than the EU average of 2.7 euros per kg. With a rate of circular use of raw materials of 20.8%, almost double the European average, the Italian production system demonstrates that reducing the use of resources is not a brake, but a multiplier of value.

The challenge is no longer just downstream, in consumer behaviour, but upstream, in supply chains and B2B models. The numbers also confirm that it pays off: as the Report explains, in the 'greater circularity' scenario, by 2030 our country could cut 17 million tonnes of waste and reach a recycling rate of 89.8%, with an estimated saving of 82.5 billion euros. A potential that counts as a new industrial policy: less dependence, more innovation and more resilient supply chains. The growth of many Italian companies is proof of this. This is confirmed by the numerous presence in the Sole 24 Ore-Statista Leader Growth ranking of companies that have made circularity their core business. Companies such as Signor Bio (see article opposite), demonstrate how the circular approach is able to generate margins, not just environmental benefits. There are many other examples of companies that put circularity into practice not as a final goal, but as part of their production model. These include Innovando, for example, which designs plants and digital solutions for the management of industrial waste and has recorded growth of 50.6% between 2021 and 2024. Or Rifò, which regenerates textile fibres to produce new garments, or GreenFeedCycles, which applies the logic of the 3Rs to agribusiness, converting agricultural by-products into sustainable feed. These are joined by Vanbat, which recycles spent lead-acid batteries and which in three years has seen revenue growth of more than 137 per cent.

Stories of companies that show how circularity is in itself an economic chain: it produces value, employment and innovation. Because today, those who reduce waste, reuse and recycle resources not only save the environment: they grow the economy.