The Institute for Environmental Protection and Research of the Ministry of the Environment, ISPRA, has recently released the 2018 data on a report about special waste in Italy. A research that, in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, is the mirror of a country before this serious crisis, but which reveals much of our habits.

Among the most significant data, the 143.5 million tons of special waste produced in 2018, increased compared to the previous year by 4.6 million tons and 6.4% compared to 2016.

The idea of the National Waste Prevention Programme was to reduce production for the current year by 10% per unit of GDP, but it is clear that, in light of the health emergency, this target will not be easily achieved.

Many increases have been recorded: hazardous waste reached the threshold of 10 million tons in 2018, while non-hazardous waste shows +4.2 million tons. +6.6% compared to 2017 for construction and demolition waste, while in the industrial and manufacturing sector there is a slight decrease, from 29.9 million tons in 2017 to 28.6 million tons in 2018.

In terms of disposal, there was a reduction in the use of landfills from 8.2% to 7.8%, but also a real decrease in landfills: in 2016 there were 360 landfills, in 2018 they stood at 310. The use on incineration stabilises at 0.8%, but alternative disposal, such as biological treatment, which in 2018 involved 11% of waste, is also increasing.

As far as a recovery is concerned, Italy shows a slight increase, recovering about 67.7% of special waste amounting to 103 million tons, unlike in 2017 which was 101 million tons. However, our country exports about 3.5 million tons, in particular those produced by treatment plants. Conversely, we import non-hazardous waste that can be easily recycled, and in 2018 there was a 10% increase in this area.

Clear at this point the national panorama, which shows a country with great criticality as regards the recovery and use of landfills especially to manage hazardous waste, which consequently we export more frequently. Finally, the management of 2019 and especially 2020 will have to be observed in this scenario, which will certainly have brought transformations also due to the lockdown and the waste produced during the crisis.