The waste management market in Italy

The term "waste management" refers to the set of policies, procedures and methodologies by which waste is managed from its generation to its final destination. The different stages involved are: collection, transportation, recycling and disposal.

We distinguish three categories of waste:

-Municipal waste

-Special waste

-Hazardous municipal waste

Globally, the waste management market is growing very rapidly as even developing countries, moving closer to the capitalist model, produce more and more garbage. According to the WAS Report, an annual report by WAS - Waste Strategy, companies involved in waste collection, treatment and disposal recorded an increase in waste managed of 6.4 percent and investments of +4.1 percent in 2019.

As for the Italian market, municipal waste, which accounts for the majority of waste in percentage terms, was about 30 million tons in 2019. Each Italian citizen therefore produced about 500 kilograms of annual waste. With respect to per capita value, the highest average values are in Central - Italy (548 kilograms per inhabitant) compared to the North (518 kilograms per inhabitant) and the South (445 kilograms per inhabitant). At the provincial level, the regions with the highest values are Reggio Emilia, Rimini and Ravenna while the lowest are Potenza and Avellino. On the one hand it is estimated, given the increase in consumption, a positive growth in waste production on the other hand, however, an increase in separate waste collection and recycling activities is expected.

There are two major trends in the waste management sector. The first is innovation that aims to make waste management companies increasingly able to recycle material, and the second is the sectoral convergence of increasing the dialogue between industrial realities and waste management companies with the aim of targeting the circular economy.