Waste: 13 billion euro turnover. In the South the highest Tari in Italy

For the Utilitatis Foundation president, Mario Rosario Mazzola, 'certain rules are needed that oblige companies, with a correct system of rewards and penalties, to make the management of the entire waste cycle more efficient and to guarantee citizens and cities better services. In waste, as is also the case in the water sector and other network services, the path must be that of providing a higher quality and more homogeneous service throughout the country and, in this sense, Arera plays a fundamental role in tracing the path'.

The increase in separate waste collection has led to a growing demand for new treatment plants over the years, but not all regions still have sufficient facilities to process the quantities produced. According to an estimate by Utilitalia, based on Ispra data from the 2023 report (with 2022 data), while the north of the country (although not all regions) and Sardinia have a sufficient number of plants, the centre, the southern peninsular and Sicily already suffer from a deficit that forces them to export waste to the north and abroad. This situation is likely to worsen in the coming years with the expected development of differentiated waste collection in the areas that are currently lagging behind; this will lead to the production of greater quantities of organic waste and scraps that, together with the residual fractions, will have to be treated in energy recovery plants in order to keep the use of landfill disposal below 10%.

As far as the workforce is concerned, the analysis shows that, on the basis of the activity of existing plants and those recently or soon to be activated, the country will have a demand of about 1 million tonnes by 2035, down from previous estimates. This requirement is unevenly distributed: the North will have a higher supply than demand (making it possible to make up part of the deficit of the other geographical macro-areas) and Sardinia will be self-sufficient, while the Centre, the southern peninsular and Sicily will have a plant deficit.

On the other hand, as regards the treatment of residual non-recyclable waste, the scenario estimated for 2035 shows that the country's needs will be about 2.5 million tonnes and that all macro-areas will have a plant deficit. While for the treatment of organic waste there is an increase in new installed capacity, the forecasts for energy recovery are less comforting: at the moment there are no major projects underway, with the exception of the Rome plant, for which the tender for its construction and management is underway, which would in fact halve the needs of the central macro-region and about a quarter of the national one.

'The Green Book,' explains Utilitalia president Filippo Brandolini, 'highlights the importance of industrial management of the entire waste cycle, the need to build plants, especially in the Centre-South, and the urgency of overcoming management fragmentation. These are three fundamental elements for the full affirmation of the circular economy. In this regard, the member companies of Utilitalia, thanks also to the funds of the NRP, are now committed to continuing the process of upgrading and improving differentiated waste collection systems as well as building innovative plants in strategic supply chains such as the organic fraction, textiles, and WEEE'.

To support the ecological transition, demand for critical raw materials, which are of fundamental importance for European industry but are exposed to a higher risk of supply, also due to the difficult geopolitical scenario, is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years. The development of supply chains for the recovery of critical and strategic raw materials is crucial to help ensure security of access to resources: the renewable plants (photovoltaics, wind power and their associated storage systems) that will be decommissioned in the coming years (about 400,000 tonnes of waste from photovoltaics alone by 2035), represent a real urban mine.

From this point of view, proper recycling of WEEE can be an opportunity to reduce dependence on third countries. However, in 2023, the total national collection of WEEE from households stood at about 349,000 tonnes, down 3.1% from 2022. The collection levels, at around 6 kg per inhabitant, are still far from the targets set by Europe (12 kg per inhabitant) and do not allow for the economics of recovering critical raw materials. In view of their strategic value and the difficulties in supplying these materials, it seems essential to boost collection, which seems to be the real driving force behind the development of the supply chain, and to guarantee the investments required to fully extract the value chain of this flow. To do this, the mechanisms for financing collection by extended producer responsibility schemes need to be reviewed.