The challenges of the circular economy

Sustainable development

Waste becomes a resource if you invest in new plants

Analyses by Teha and Bcg show that betting on the circular economy provides industry and the country system with advantages on energy costs and supplies, and on climate impact

by Claudia La Via

4 November 2025

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Italy's numbers
Prospects for biomethane

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

There is an Italy that does not only produce waste, but transforms it into raw materials. An Italy that builds plants, creates technology and runs towards climate neutrality. This is the Italy of the circular economy, today called upon to make a new leap of scale in order to make the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec) credible and align with the European 2030 targets.

The challenge, however, is no longer theoretical. Over the next few years, hundreds of new plants will be needed for the recycling and recovery of materials: plastics, WEEE, organic waste, textiles and inert materials. An industrial map still to be constructed, but already mapped out in its main directions. This was discussed in Rome at an event promoted by the Tesya Group, which brought together experts, consultants and representatives of the academic and associative worlds.

"To meet the European 2030 targets, we need hundreds of new systems and the upgrade of existing ones,' explained Emanuele Belsito, senior advisor of the Boston consulting group (Bcg), introduced by managing director and partner Davide Veroux. 'For their part, industrial operators should initiate strategic collaborations across the ecosystem and prioritise the transition from system or software vendors to value-added system integrators.

Italy's numbers

Italy is starting from a good position: 86% of treated waste ends up in recycling or composting and waste-to-energy covers another 5%. "But landfills are becoming saturated," Belsito observes, "as many as 37 out of 149 are no longer active (from 2015 to 2023) while the others see their residual capacity progressively decreasing. In addition, we need to invest to reach the EU target of 10% of urban waste in landfills by 2035: we are now at 9% in total but for urban waste we are at 20%.

As far as packaging is concerned, the debate on the new European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (Ppwr) is taking place. 'We need to increase the use of recycled plastics in packaging from the current 8% to 65% by 2040; we will therefore need much more than the 31 sorting plants and 82 mechanical recycling plants operating now in Italy,' Belsito clarified.

Another interesting front is that of electrical and electronic waste. "WEEE is on the rise, starting with the incoming wave of end-of-life photovoltaic panels between 2031 and 2040," said senior advisor Bcg. "The number of plants for the treatment of WEEE must be significantly increased in Italy, from the current 47. Slower, instead, is the race to recover textile waste, for which the 2025/1892 directive introduces mandatory collection at 50% by 2030, compared to the current 14%. "We estimate that 20-25 new plants are missing," added Belsito.

The outlook for biomethane

The area in which the circular economy offers perhaps the best prospects now is biomethane. 'The growth of biomethane production plants has been exponential in recent years (as many as 34 new plants in 2024 alone, for a total of about 130),' explained the analyst and consultant. 'The Biomethane 2022 Ministerial Decree has further increased investments, but to reach the Pniec targets in 2030 we estimate that about 500 new plants would be needed. In particular, the treatment of agro-industrial residues are a great business opportunity.

Opinione, questa, condivisa da Alessandro Viviani, associate partner di The European House Ambrosetti (Teha). «Per raggiungere il target ambizioso fissato dal Pniec di 5,7 miliardi di metri cubi (bcm) di biometano all’anno entro il 2030 (dagli 0,57 del 2024) la produzione dovrebbe decuplicare entro il 2030 ma le aste pubbliche per l’accesso agli incentivi, così come sono, ci porteranno circa a un terzo di questo target – ha spiegato -. Occorre attirare investimenti privati, attraverso una chiarezza sul modello di incentivi che si intende mettere in piedi e favorendo il passaggio verso un modello industriale in grado di creare un mutuo vantaggio con le filiere agricole secondo un modello better energy, stronger value food value chain». L’orizzonte non è solo ambientale. «Il biometano come fonte di produzione di energia rappresenta un’urgente necessità per le industrie energivore, visti anche la volatilità dei prezzi energetici e l’aumento di onerosità del sistema Ets (di scambio di quote di

In an analysis that considers the combined action of cogeneration, biomethane, photovoltaics, biomass and digitalisation, cogeneration accounts for around 65% of the potential reduction in consumption; cogeneration and biomethane together would contribute 59% of the cut in emissions and 50% of the savings in ETS costs. On a country-wide scale, a coordinated adoption of these levers would reduce expenditure on gas imports by around EUR 3.6 billion, of which 56% can be attributed to the cogeneration-biomethane combination, and would make it possible to lower Italy's energy intensity index, recovering competitiveness.