ITALY IS PAVING THE WAY FOR A STRONGER CIRCULAR ECONOMY
The 2025 National Report on the Circular Economy, jointly released by the Circular Economy Network and ENEA, highlights Italy’s continued leadership in circularity across Europe. While the country maintains a strong position in overall circular performance, the report underscores a persistent gap in private sector investments aimed at boosting the circularity of production processes.
Italy remains first in the EU for ‘levels of circularity’ but suffers from a ‘high’ dependence on material imports. The seventh ‘Report on the Circular Economy in Italy’ by the Circular Economy Network (CEN) and ENEA presents, as explained in the press release, ‘a contradictory picture, although still substantially positive of the Italian circular economy.
The Foundation for Sustainable Development conducted a study on the costs and benefits arising from the increase in circularity of the Italian economy. Two scenarios for 2030 were compared: one business as usual and one with and increased circularity implementation. Following the current trend in the ‘business as usual’ scenario, in 2030 the amount of recycled waste would r
each 77% (up from 70% in 2020), waste production would increase by 4%, and the amount of waste to be disposed of would decrease; the domestic consumption of materials would grow from 459 Mt in 2020 to 611 Mt. The more circular scenario proposes a 3.5% annual reduction in material consumption starting from 2022, a 1.5% annual increase in the recycling rate from 2021, and a 1% reduction in waste production from 2021. In the more circular scenario, the overall material consumption in 2030 would decrease by 14.5% compared to 2020, the amount of waste produced would decrease (-17 Mt by 2030), the amount of recycled waste would increase (+18%), leading to a recycling rate of 89.8% in 2030. The more circular scenario would significantly reduce Italy’s dependence on foreign supply with a reduction of 40 Mt and savings of €82.5 billion.
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