Wednesday November 22, 2023 in yet another meeting of the European Parliament, the vote on the absurd regulation on packaging and packaging waste (PPWR) will take place. This ingenious regulation, which promotes reuse at the expense of recycling processes (of which Italy is a leader), seems to come straight from a comedy manual. If approved, this regulatory masterpiece would wreak havoc on the Italian packaging industry, the recycling sector, and even trade, not to mention agriculture, livestock, and gastronomy.
According to this brilliant regulation, we should abandon the use of recyclable packaging and return to bulk sales, as if we were catapulted back in time with carts and buckets.
Italy, which is clearly a kind of recycling superhero (see the “Recycling in Italy 2022” report), is already nine years ahead of the European target of 70%, with 73.3% of packaging sent for recycling (equal to 10.5 million tons).
Moreover, our country is at the top even in the overall circularity of its production system, with a utilization of 21.6% of recycled materials, while Germany is stuck at 13.4%, just above the EU average of 12.8%.
Data from the Recycling Report as of December 31, 2022.
In 2020, our rate of separate collection of urban waste was 63%, while Germany barely reached 55%. Furthermore, landfill disposal had dropped to 20%, while the recycling of industrial waste exceeded 70%, and landfill disposal had dropped to 6%.
Among the most recycled materials in 2020, we have:
- 12 million 287 thousand tons of metals, mostly steel;
- 5 million 213 thousand tons of paper and cardboard;
- 2 million tons of particle board panels;
- 2 million 229 thousand tons of recycled glass;
- 1 million 734 thousand tons of compost;
- 972 thousand tons of recycled plastic.
In 2020, Italy recycled 72% of all waste, urban and special-industrial, compared to Europe, which seems like a truly empty stage.
The Italian recycling industry involves 4,800 companies and 236,000 employees throughout its supply chain, and we’re talking about significant numbers! For this reason, we hope that this European stroke of genius is rejected, leaving the Leading Country that we are to continue expressing our views without unnecessary interruptions.
