Italy's leading position in the separation and recycling of waste is widely acknowledged. However, closer examination of the actual amounts and statistics in this field provides a more detailed view of the tangible effects of this successful policy. According to CONAI's recently released General Report, the percentage of recycled waste in our country has now reached an impressive 71.5%, with over 10,400,000 items of packaging given a second lease of life thanks to an efficient system that unites consortia and the industry through a common goal.

Within this system, waste is transformed into a valuable resource, and the separation and recycling procedures serve as sources from which raw materials are extracted in order to manufacture high-quality environmentally conscious packaging without compromising in terms of barrier properties.

With performance levels like these, Italy is outperforming the recycling requirements of the European Union, which has established a collection target per year for member states of 65% by 2025 and 70% by 2030. It's not just about the numerical targets, the calculation methods are key too. With Decision 2019/665, the European Union implemented stricter parameters which shifted the benchmark and excluded certain industrial waste originating from plastic processing from the calculation.

Finally, when examining the data broken down by material type, it is becoming clear that the supply chain is fully operational across all its aspects, successfully collecting, separating and repurposing, as much as 418,000 tonnes of steel, 60,000 tonnes of aluminium, 4,311,000 of paper, 2,147,000 of wood, 1,122,000 tonnes of plastic and bioplastic, and 2,293,000 tonnes of glass.

For further information: CONAI