Waste, the South pays 90 euro more for Tari (local taxes) than the North

Italia is improving its performance on separate waste collection and recycling, but the gap between the amount of waste collected and that actually recovered is still wide. And the plant deficit also remains strong, particularly in the south, with very significant effects on service costs, on which the excessive fragmentation of the service also has a significant impact. Which, in the centre-south, refers to the high presence of managements that do not exceed the municipal territory, while there are still too few large industrial operators capable of closing the cycle. With the result that the South paid 378 euro in Tari in 2025 compared to a national average of 333 euro for a family of three members and a house of 100 square metres: 90 euro more than the same nucleus paid in the North (288 euro) and just above the bar in the Centre (358 euro).

This is the snapshot taken by the Green Book 2026, the annual report on the urban waste sector in Italia, promoted by Utilitalia and edited by the Utilitatis Foundation, which will be presented today in Naples and on which Ispra, Enea, Cdr Raee and some member companies of the Federation have also collaborated. The analysis offers, therefore, a precise snapshot of the state of the art of the sector, starting from the level reached by the national production of urban waste in 2024 (latest available data), which stood at just over 29.9 million tonnes, 2.3% more than the year before, while separate waste collection reached 68% of the national production (+1%), for a value of almost 20.3 million tonnes. The recycling rate is also on the rise, reaching 52% (+1.3%), but is still far from the target indicated by Europe (65% by 2035) due to the fact that plant equipment is still not uniform throughout the country. With the greatest criticalities especially in the southern peninsular and in Sicily, both for the organic fraction and for undifferentiated waste. While in the centre, the construction of the plants in Rome (the two biodigesters under construction in Cesano and Casal Selce and the waste-to-energy plant in Santa Palomba) should help halve the requirement for the residual fraction and reduce by a quarter that for the organic fraction.

On future projects looms a risk to which Utilitalia president Luca Dal Fabbro will draw attention today during the presentation of the research results: the possible extension, starting in 2028, of the European emissions trading system (ETS) to waste-to-energy plants envisaged by EU directive 959/2023, which has profoundly reformed the mechanism. "The possible inclusion of waste-to-energy plants in the Ets system runs the risk of generating further tariff increases for municipalities, citizens and businesses, without producing significant environmental benefits. Recycling and energy recovery plants are indispensable to promote waste management with a view to the circular economy. The NRP has fostered the development of recycling plants, helping to partly rebalance the differences between North and South,' Dal Fabbro told Il Sole 24 Ore, reiterating the crucial role of waste-to-energy plants. "They are essential for closing the cycle because they make it possible to treat non-recyclable materials and recover energy, without hindering separate waste collection but rather integrating it into a sustainable and efficient system".

n short, the European move could have significant repercussions on these plants, which account for less than 2% of national emissions: according to estimates by Utilitalia and the Utilitatis foundation, chaired by Mario Rosario Mazzola, the application of carbon pricing could produce up to 45 euros per tonne of tariff increases and up to 350 million euros per year in additional charges. A hefty bill, then, for the Italia system that is struggling to get back on its feet. And the data cited in the report on the composition of waste sent for recycling highlight the central role of the various supply chains: the organic fraction accounts for 41% of the quantities sent for recycling, followed by paper and cardboard (25%), glass (13%), wood (7%) and plastic (6%). And the different management structures are reflected in the average collection and treatment costs, which vary between the segments: they range from 24.2-27.8 eurocents per kilogram of glass to 43.67-53.44 eurocents per kilogram of plastic packaging, where the incidence of extraneous fractions weighs more heavily on the variability of costs.

Finally, the investment front with companies in the sector putting in a commitment of around 2 billion euro in 2024, up on 2016 and with a peak recorded between 2022 and 2023, linked in part to the Pnrr push. As for turnover, the bar is set at 19 billion euro (0.9% of the national GDP), with more than 122 thousand direct employees.