In municipal waste treatment,Italy lags behind its main European partners, because still uses landfills too much and little energy recovery through waste-to-energy plants. The EU objectives for 2035 envisage containing landfill disposal within 10% and in 2019 our country exceeded this threshold by more than double, reaching 20,9%, against a Western European average of 17,6 %. It is what emerges from an article published by the Observatory on Italian public accounts led by Carlo Cottarelli.
How much waste is produced in Italy?
With 30,1 million tons in 2019, we are in third place in the European ranking, behind only Germany (50,6) and France (37,4). In per capita terms, however, Italians are in line with the European average (501 kg).
How are they treated?
The Observatory proposes this scheme:
- 32,7% of waste is recycled as non-organic material.
- 23,2% is treated as organic fraction.
- 22,7% ends up in landfill.
- 20,7% ends up in waste-to-energy plants.
- 0,7% is incinerated with low energy recovery.
The "trafficking of waste" in the country
The problem is that 26 of the 37 waste-to-energy plants present in Italy they are in the north (another 6 are in the South and only 5 in the Centre), which triggers a series of "enormous and polluting waste trafficking within the country - writes the Observatory - An analysis by Utilitalia estimates that for the overall exchange of waste, 62 million km are traveled and 40 tonnes of CO2 are emitted a year, at a cost of 75 million euro”.
The ISPRA 2020 Report indicates that "Campania e Lazio are the regions that export the most organic waste to Italy, sending it to non-neighboring regions (mainly towards Veneto, Friuli and Lombardy) respectively 25 and 14,5% of the total organic fraction produced by them".
The lack of infrastructure
The Observatory therefore underlines that the Center of Italy, as well as showing serious infrastructural deficiencies in recent years has increased the amount of waste disposed of in landfills, reaching 550 kg per capita per year, against 521 in the North and 451 in the South.
The article therefore points out the need for "a decisive infrastructural intervention in the treatment of waste, above all to reduce what ends up in landfills".
