Recycling of steel packaging: Italy at 82%

According to data provided by RICREA, with a 2019 collection at +4.7% and 399,006 t sent for recycling, Italy exceeds the European target for 2030. Thanks to the new Technical Annex of the ANCI-CONAI Framework Agreement more attention to waste quality and traceability.

Italy has confirmed its excellence in the segregated collection of steel packaging, with a recycling start up rate of 82.2% of the amount released for consumption, higher than the 80% target set for 2030 by the European Directive on the Circular Economy.

In 2019, 399,006 tons (+3.1% compared to the previous year) of jars and cans, spray cans, crown caps and capsules, milk, drums, steel drums ... In practice, to give an idea of the quantities, would be equal to the weight of about 167 Atomiums, the famous monument of Brussels.

This is an important goal achieved thanks to the commitment of the entire supply chain, starting with the citizens who correctly differentiate steel packaging every day, a metal that - we remind you - can be recycled indefinitely without losing its qualities.

Released in June during the annual assembly by RICREA (the National Non-profit Consortium for the Recovery and Recycling of Steel Packaging), the data show an increase of 4.7% of collected packaging compared to 2018, for a total of 480,921 tons. The per capita share of steel packaging collected in a year is also growing strongly, with an 18% increase compared to 2018, with an average of 3.79 kg per inhabitant.

Very satisfied with the results obtained the RICREA President, Domenico Rinaldini, who confirms «the validity of the efforts made in recent years to promote and facilitate the collection of our steel packaging». 

Recognizing the quality of the collection. In December 2019, the ANCI-CONAI Framework Agreement was renewed, the instrument through which the consortium system guarantees Italian municipalities the coverage of the increased costs incurred to carry out the separate collection of packaging waste.

Following the renewal of the agreement, the new Technical Annex for steel packaging, which came into force on June 1 and covers the five-year period 2020-2024, was then approved.

It is still Rinaldini to underline that «In a delicate moment like the one we are experiencing, having signed the new Technical Annex with ANCI is a success and an important result from which to start again. With the new rules, particular attention is paid to the theme of quality, rewarding the best bands with increases in fees. Because only with a careful collection and a good selection of packaging we can achieve quality recycling».

«Another important factor on which Ricrea intends to invest in the next few years - specifies the president - concerns the accentuation of the subsidiarity character of the consortium system, through the possibility of partial agreement by the parties to the agreement, while maintaining the verification of the recycling path also on the quantities managed autonomously».