Mafia and waste: separate waste collection is growing in the commissary municipalities
A study by the University of Pisa reveals an increase in separate waste collection and a reduction in waste produced in commissary municipalities
Quick Look
A study by the University of Pisa analyzes the impact of the dissolution of city councils due to mafia infiltration on waste management, highlighting an improvement in separate waste collection and a reduction in waste produced between 2010 and 2020.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The study analyzes data from 5,960 Italian municipalities between 2010 and 2020, comparing municipalities dissolved due to mafia with ordinary management.
In the municipalities under commissionership after the respective councils were dissolved due to the mafia, separate waste collection increased and both produced and undifferentiated waste decreased. This was revealed by a study by Lucio Masserini and Giulia Romano of the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Pisa, published in the journal Statistics and Public Policy. The research was born as part of the Prin 2022 project “Climbing the Waste Hierarchy: enabling factors and policies” (Cliwep), financed by the European Union through NextGenerationEU and the Pnrr.
The study is based on data collected from 2010 to 2020 in 5,960 Italian municipalities, in 88 of these the municipal council was dissolved due to suspected mafia infiltration. The regions where these cases are most concentrated are Calabria, Sicily, Puglia and Campania but Basilicata, Emilia-Romagna, Liguria and Lombardy also appear.
According to the research, separate waste collection began to improve from the third year after the dissolution and, between the fifth and seventh, it increased by 12-13%. At the same time, the production of annual waste per inhabitant has decreased by approximately 50-60 kilos, while the unsorted waste has decreased by approximately 30 kilos.
"We wanted to look not only at how much separate waste collection is growing, but also at how much and what waste is produced - explains Giulia Romano - The results show that, after a few years, the dissolution and administrative reorganization are accompanied by improvements on all three aspects studied, i.e. separate collection, production of total and undifferentiated waste. Reducing waste also means reducing the material to be treated and disposed of and, consequently, the opportunities for profit in a sector that can attract the interests of organized crime".
The project, concluded in December 2025, studied the factors and policies that allow improving waste management according to the European hierarchy. Alongside the quantitative analysis published in the article, the research process included interviews with people with experience in municipal access commissions, waste management and organized crime experts and associations, including Libera. Associations, names and numbers against the mafias.
Open Questions
- What specific administrative measures caused the improvement?
