The report "L'Italia del Riciclo", focusing on the state of the recycling market in Italy, was recently published by Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile (the Sustainable Development Foundation) and by FISE Unire (the Italian association of companies working in the waste collection and recycling sectors).

The report presents an encouraging situation, in which the Italian waste management sector is steadily growing notwithstanding a generalized condition of crisis of the productive sector. In the last 5 years the number of workers in the sector increased by 13% and the number of companies (94% of which is in the collection sector) increased by 10%. The total turnoff accounted for 34 billion Euros.

The 1% increase of the packaging recycling in the period 2011-2013 is particularly significant because in the same interval both industrial production and consumption shrunk. The most successful sectors were paper (86%), steel (74%) and glass (65%), while other productive chains (e-waste, inerts, textiles) still do not reach either national or European targets.

The report underlines that there are wide margins of improvement for the waste sector, both at national and European level. Stronger actions for waste prevention, ecodesign and reuse could bring up to 600 billion a year of savings and create 600.000 jobs, while making the European market more competitive and reducing the need of raw materials.

At the same time it is recognized that more can be done at the political and administrative level in order to offer the companies clearer rules and easier procedures and to shift from the "waste" to the "secondary raw material" concept. The efficient use of resources (including waste) is in fact one of the main pillars for the development of a green economy and for a more sustainable growth.

The report is available for download at this link (Italian only)