Italy confirms itself among the most virtuous European countries in the circular use of resources, with a circularity rate above 21%, almost double the European average (12.2%). A record called into question today by the plastic recycling crisis and which coexists with some structural critical issues: growing production of special waste, still significant use of landfills, limited use of energy recovery and over 6 million tonnes of waste which are exported abroad every year. Meanwhile, the cost of waste management continues to grow, which for Italian families has reached an average of 340 euros per year and for businesses exceeds a total of 20 billion euros.
This is the photograph that emerges from "Waste in Numbers 2026", the report created by Assoambiente (the Association that represents companies operating in the sector of urban hygiene, recycling, recovery, circular economy, waste disposal and reclamation) and presented today in Rimini during the Ecomondo fair. The study collects and analyzes the main indicators of the sector, from the use of raw materials to the production and management of waste, from recycling to energy recovery, up to the costs incurred by citizens and businesses. The objective is to provide a clear and documented reading of the dimensions of the Italian circular economy, highlighting its results and critical issues still to be overcome.
Every year the Italian economy uses 777 million tons of materials, a volume that has remained essentially stable over the last decade. Of these, 642 million are virgin raw materials and 135 million come from recycling. Italy has a circularity rate above 21%, among the highest in Europe, second only to the Netherlands (27.2%). A significant result for a country characterized by a limited availability of natural resources and a manufacturing system strongly oriented towards the transformation of raw materials. This characteristic is also reflected in the dependence on imports: 300 million tonnes of virgin raw materials, equal to approximately 46% of the total, come from abroad, especially fossil fuels.
The report also highlights how only a part of the resources used in the economy immediately becomes waste: a significant share is incorporated into goods, products and infrastructures, while another is transformed into emissions. A fact that underlines how the circular economy cannot be based exclusively on increased recycling, but must also include a more efficient use of resources and a progressive reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels.
In 2024, Italy produced a total of 202 million tonnes of waste, of which 29.9 million were municipal waste and 172.1 million were special waste. If the production of urban waste has remained substantially stable in the last decade (it was 29.7 million tonnes in 2014), that of special waste has increased significantly, going from 134.4 million in 2014 to the current 172.1.
Over half of special waste (52.5%) comes from construction and demolition activities, while 23.1% comes from waste treatment and 15.9% from manufacturing activities. These numbers highlight how, despite the progress made, the national economy has not yet achieved an effective decoupling between production activities and the generation of special waste.
On the urban waste front, Italy has made important progress in separate waste collection, which went from 45.2% in 2014 to 67.7% in 2024, for a total of 20.3 million tonnes collected separately. The actual recycling rate, however, stands at 52.3%. A distance of over 15 percentage points compared to separate waste collection which highlights the need to improve the quality of the materials collected and the efficiency of the selection and treatment processes. In fact, the gap is mainly affected by the presence of improper materials in the collections and the waste generated by selection activities. Another critical issue concerns the use of landfill, which still accounts for 14.8% of urban waste, compared to the European objective of decreasing to 10% by 2035. Energy recovery, on the other hand, concerns a share of less than 20% of urban waste, from which the equivalent of 3.6% of national electricity consumption is obtained.
The volume of waste exported also highlights the shortcomings of the national plant network: 6.4 million tonnes in 2024, equal to approximately 3% of overall production. Of these, 5.1 million tons are special waste and 1.3 million are municipal waste. A phenomenon which, according to Assoambiente, confirms the need to strengthen national treatment, recovery and disposal capabilities, preventing potentially exploitable materials from having to be transferred abroad.
"We are among the European leaders of the circular economy, but we cannot be satisfied with the results achieved. We continue to export millions of tons of waste and use landfills too much. We must fill the plant deficit, also enhance energy recovery for non-recyclable waste and create regulatory conditions favorable to investments, through certain rules and, for example, simpler and quicker authorization procedures. Only in this way will we be able to make the system more efficient, sustainable and less expensive", commented the president of Assoambiente, Chicco Testa.
The report also pays particular attention to the economic weight of waste management. In 2025, each Italian family incurred an average annual expense of 340 euros for the waste tax or tariff, compared to 323 euros the previous year, with significant territorial differences: from 203 euros in Trentino-Alto Adige to 427 euros in Puglia. For the management of urban waste, the overall national cost reached 12.5 billion euros in 2024, an increase compared to 10.1 billion in 2014.
