Waste, 2.3% increase in production in 2024
Ispra 2025 report on the sector: the share of separate waste collection and management costs are also growing, reaching 214.4 euro per capita per year
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Municipal waste, in 2024 the national production stands at just over 29.9 million tonnes, an increase of 2.3% compared to 2023. One of the reasons for this is the increase in GDP and final consumption expenditure over the last year, both +0.7%. This was revealed in the Waste 2025 Report presented by Ispra on 11 December. Overall, the institute notes, in the 14 municipalities with a resident population over 200,000 inhabitants, there has been a 1.8% increase in the production of urban waste.
Increasing waste collection
On the separate collection front, the national share in 2024 increased to 67.7% (from 66.6% in 2023), with percentages of 74.2% in the North, 63.2% in the Centre and 60.2% in the South. The highest percentages are in Emilia-Romagna (78.9%) and Veneto (78.2%). They are followed by Sardinia (76.6%), Trentino-Alto Adige (75.8%), Lombardy (74.3%) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (72.7%).
Among these regions, Emilia-Romagna is the one with the highest increase in the collection percentage, with an increase of 1.7 points compared to the 2023 values. Marche (71.8%), Valle d'Aosta (71.7%), Umbria (69.6%), Piedmont (68.9%), Tuscany (68.1%), Basilicata (66.3%) and Abruzzo (65.7%) also exceed the 65% target.
Overall, more than 72% of the municipalities achieved a separate collection rate of more than 65%. In the last year, 89.7% of municipalities collected more than half of their municipal waste separately. Among cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants, the highest levels of separate collection are in Bologna (72.8%), Padua (65.1%), Venice (63.7%) and Milan (63.3%). They are followed by Florence (60.7%), Messina (58.6%), Turin and Verona (57.4%). Further behind, although growing, are Genoa (49.8%), Rome (48%), Bari (46%) and Naples (44.4%).
In 2024, 625 municipal waste management plants were operational, more than half dedicated to the organic fraction, 'although in some regions the facilities remain insufficient'. notes Ispra in the report. The recovery of organic waste takes place mainly in integrated anaerobic/aerobic plants (58.5% of the quantities treated), followed by composting (34%) and anaerobic digestion alone (7.5%). The total treated biologically reaches approximately 7.2 million tonnes, an increase of 3.9% compared to 2023.
