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This paper studies the relationship between environmental concern and household separate waste collection, controlling for social capital, in Italy in the year 1998 when policy makers started to raise awareness of the importance of waste prevention, disposal and recycling. At the time, the public's sensitivity and attitude to waste issues were mainly influenced by their own lifestyles. We consider five separate waste collections, namely paper, plastic, glass, aluminium and food waste, to be taken to the relevant roadside containers. It focuses on three types of environmental concerns, classified as egoistic, altruistic and biospheric, and identifies five measures of general environmental issues able to match the different types of concerns considered. It also controls for three types of social relations: bonding, bridging and linking social capital. We use the dataset from the Multipurpose Household Survey, conducted by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), and five probit models to shape the number of separate waste collections. The results show that greater concern for waste production and disposal, pollution, climate change, resource depletion and alteration of environmental heritage is related to a higher likelihood of doing household waste recycling. Nonetheless, for the highest number of separate waste collections, the magnitude of the marginal effect of environmental concern variables decreases, showing the relevance of marginal costs in recycling behaviour. Finally, bridging social capital is the only social capital positively correlated with all five separate waste collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is crucial to economic growth and has major environmental and social impacts. A key impact is the generation of municipal solid waste. Yet, whether and to what extent tourism increases the costs of solid waste collection has seen little attention. To our best knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impacts of tourism activities on the solid waste collection costs of different waste types. Analysing a sample of 68 Italian municipalities, we estimate the tourism's impacts on solid waste collection costs per waste type: organic, paper, multi-material (metal, plastic, glass), and residual undifferentiated. We find that the number of tourists, the number of overnight hotel stays, and tourists' spending significantly increase the collection costs of paper and paperboard, multi-material, and residual undifferentiated. Our findings suggest the need to distinguish between waste types in future investigations about the tourism as a cost driver. The results have interesting practical implications for the waste management systems and for municipalities' overall waste management policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between neighborhood effects and pro-environmental behavior. Working on 1999–2012 data on separate waste collection in Italian provinces, a spatial econometric analysis is carried out. While a substantial stream of research focuses on recycling behavior determinants, spatial dependence among different inter-regional geographical areas has been less studied. Here, empirical support is provided to the existence of spatial effects and heterogeneous behavior in the Italian context. It is found that waste collecting habits tend to be strongly influenced by proximity effects, either in a positive or negative way. Moreover, the paper tests the nature of such influence in terms of time effects, by evaluating non-contemporary spatial dependence. “Good” (or “bad”) pro-environmental behavior as a persistent dynamic effect is found, with the possibility of both self-sustaining virtuous socio-spatial dynamics and perverse lock in. These results call for a rethinking of environmental policies, and in particular for a stronger focus upon the social dimension of spatial diffusion phenomena in pro-environmental behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the factors that determine the solid waste collection costs. Studying a sample of Italian municipalities, the research estimates the collection costs of different types of waste: paper and paperboard, multimaterial (glass, plastic, metal), organic, residual undifferentiated waste. The findings show that the economies of scale and the cost drivers differ across the types of waste. Among the cost drivers significantly affecting the different types of waste, we find: the population size and density, the percentage of separate collection, the percentage of home collection and the private delivery. Our study also highlights how the waste disposal firm internal efficiency significantly affects the collection costs with different degrees in each type of waste. The results may have interesting practical and policy implications for the waste costs management systems and for the overall waste management performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the European Union, which is increasingly oriented towards environmentally sustainable development, separate waste collection plays a crucial role. Over the years, the EU has produced several guidelines, programmes and directives aimed to build a green society and tone down the differences between, as well as within, Member States. In Italy, the waste management system is currently regulated by Legislative Decree 152/2006, through which European directives have been incorporated into the Italian law. The existing literature has focused on the effects of L.D. 152/2006 on Separate Waste Collection (SWC) rates; however, there are not previous studies on the effects of this decree on growth rates and on convergence process among regions in terms of SWC and its items (i.e., organic, plastic, paper, and glass). This paper aims to fill these gaps. For this purpose, we implement β- and σ- convergence analysis based on Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) on official Italian regional data over the period 2001–2018. Results show that Legislative Decree 152/2006 has two contrasting effects: on the one hand, it helped increase separate waste collection; on the other hand, it slowed down the convergence process in terms of separate waste collection among the Italian regions. However, the convergence process is characterised by different speeds across Italian macro-areas (Northern, Central, and Southern Italy), highlighting a three-speed country. To foster convergence, the national legislation should consider regional differences in terms of economic, infrastructural, institutional, social, and demographic characteristics. Image 1 • We implement β- and σ-convergence analysis on Italian regional data through GMM estimations. • Legislative Decree 152/2006 promoted the growth of SWC rates. • Legislative Decree 152/2006 reduced β - and σ-convergence among Italian regions in terms of SWC. • Regional convergence in SWC is conditioned by regional socio-economic drivers. • Results show a three-speed Italy in terms of SWC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This VSI focuses on what cross-cutting insights might be gained from research to increase the energy/materials circularity and the contribution of eco-innovation, cleaner consumption, and waste management to produce a logical body of knowledge that may lead to increased resilience and a sustainable Planet. The articles' collection shows development trends of sustainable, cleaner production under the Special Issue: A Resilient and Sustainable World. Some selected d papers have been presented and emerged from the 10th and 11th International Workshop on Advances in Cleaner Production (IWACP), held in hybrid mode in Italy (Ferrata and Florence). The contribution of the articles in this Special Issue could be divided into efforts toward sustainable and cleaner production, aiming (i) Eco-innovation for cleaner production and circular economy, (ii) Proper monitoring and identification of cleaner production, circular economy, and eco-innovation, (iii) cleaner production, circular economy and eco-innovation targeting social wellbeing and cleaner environment, (iv) cleaner production, circular economy and eco-innovation targeting emission reduction, and (v) cleaner production, circular economy and eco-innovation targeting improved and optimized production processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal waste management, especially in developed countries, has a significant impact on the environment and humans that need to be quantified and mitigated. This study aims to investigate and compare the environmental impact and occupational risks of the following three municipal waste collection methods in Italy: street bins, door-to-door collection, and a smart bins system. Six waste categories (paper, plastics, glass, metal, organic materials, and residual waste) are analysed. Environmental performances are calculated by the life cycle assessment (LCA) and material and flow analysis (MFA) methodologies. The ergonomic analysis is based on direct observation of municipal waste collectors and the application of standard assessment methods as RULA, NIOSH, and Snook Ciriello. show that the smart bins collection method is environmentally more effective in all the impact categories considered, thanks to the better quality of collected waste. The residual waste flow directed to landfills has a lower value in the case of smart bins (36.63%) in comparison with door-to-door (52.90%) and street bins (89.56%). The use of smart bins allows higher environmental benefits, passing for the Climate Change impact category from −2.80E+01 kg of CO2eq. of the door-to-door system and −2.74E+01 kg of CO2eq. of street bins to −7.13E+01 kg of CO2eq. of smart bins. Regarding the transport phase, the smart bins system determines a reduction of the impact of about 60% if compared with the door-to-door system for all the impact categories considered. On the other hand, acceptable occupational risks result in street and smart waste collection methods, while poor ergonomics conditions are observed during the door-to-door collection. Containers lifting and emptying are the most critical tasks. [Display omitted] • Smart technologies in urban waste management determines benefits in environmental terms. • Smart technologies in urban waste management preserves the operators' health condition. • Analysis of environmental impact and occupational risk of municipal waste systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the extent to which current Italian legislation has been able to achieve the goals set for separate waste collection within the context of the ongoing revision of European Union (EU) policy. In Italy waste management is regulated by Legislative Decree 152/2006, which has set the main regulatory pillars: the responsibilities among the actors at different territorial levels (regions, provinces and municipalities); the waste tariff structure; penalties and incentives, such as the “landfill tax” and “green certificates” to promote energy recovery. Focussing on separate collection of municipal waste, the Italian law set three targets to achieve: 35% by 2006; 45% 2008, and 65% by 2012. We propose a two-step analysis focussing on 103 Italian provinces, using the longitudinal data provided by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) for the period 1999–2011. First, using the transition probability matrix, we analyse the transition probabilities among three different separate waste collection states (low, medium and high). Second, by using a generalised ordered probit model, we verify the magnitude and significance of the parameter associated to the Legislative Decree 152/2006 and of some other selected variables in allowing provinces to move from a low separate collection state to a higher one. Our results show that the Legislative Decree has had the positive effect of driving Italy's provinces towards higher separate waste collection rates, but has not proved effective in lowering the gap among provinces: those in southern Italy remain the least dynamic. Finally, we show that citizen participation in ecological associations and voluntary activities has a positive effect on separate collection rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper was to evaluate the environmental burden of the organic waste management systems implemented in Umbria region in Italy, in order to provide useful information for taking strategic decisions aimed at the improvement and optimization. The two most widespread scenarios were analyzed: source-segregated collection followed by organic fertilizer production and not-differentiated collection followed by mechanical and biological treatment and disposal in landfill of the biostabilized material. The environmental performance was assessed through Life Cycle Assessment methodology, assuming one ton of organic waste as functional unit. Most of data for life cycle inventory were provided by actual facilities while background data were obtained from EcoInvent database. The alternative scenarios were compared through the IMPACT 2002+ method and the assessment was carried out on both midpoint and endpoint levels. Results showed that the landfilling of the undifferentiated organic waste has the least impact on the analyzed impact categories, except on the Global Warming, mostly due to the uncollected methane released by the landfill. As regards the aerobic composting of the source-segregated organic fraction, the efforts to reduce the impact should be mainly focused on the reduction of the air emissions (hydrogen sulfide, particulate, ammonia and NMVOC) from the biostabilization process. Furthermore the sensitivity analysis indicated that the increase of the biogas collection efficiency could significantly improve the performance of the not-differentiated collection scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The waste crisis in Campania has inspired a vast amount of studies. Nevertheless, very little research has been done to explain the figures of waste generation and disposal in the region. The analyses carried out so far according to the indicators used by official statistics – i.e. Waste Generated, Waste Generated per capita and Separate Collection – fail to represent this hot spot case. This paper attempts to bridge this gap. Adopting the rationale of a new accounting system, the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM), two waste indicators are proposed to complement the conventional ones: the Metabolic Rate of Waste and the Density of Waste. Then a multi-scale analysis of the Density of Waste Disposed (DWD) tests its suitability to characterise Campania’s waste patterns. The data cover the period from 1999 to 2007. The results show that the DWD complements available indicators and further helps to explain the biophysical pressure and ecological unsustainability of the waste management in the region. The multi-scale analysis shows that regional data hide a relevant territorial diversity, emergent in the provincial analysis and even more so in the municipal one. These results have implications for governance and for the debate about mono-scale versus multi-scale solutions to waste management problems. Finally, the analysis allows some analytical generalisations on the suitability of the DWD to detect situations of potential waste crisis in other study-contexts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The ever increasing quantity of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) in Italy is presently challenging public administrators, which strive to ensure that collection and recycling are sustainably managed and need to understand whether and to what extent recycled aggregates can complement natural aggregates in a sustainable supply mix (SSM) for the construction industry. The paper presents a research aimed at analysing energy and environmental implications of the C&DW recycling chain in the administrative territory of Provincia di Torino in Northern Italy, with 2.25 million inhabitants and yearly generation of 1.8 million tons of C&DW. A combined Geographical Information System (GIS) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model was developed using site-specific data and paying particular attention to land use, transportation and avoided landfill: crucial issues for sustainable planning and management. A GIS was used to handle data and information about 89 recycling plants, including technological features, output and physical–mechanical characteristics of recycled aggregate. The LCA methodology was used to identify and quantify energy and environmental loads, under different assumptions relevant to delivery distances, quality of recycled aggregates, local availability of natural aggregates and geographical coverage of market demand. The C&DW recycling chain was proved to be eco-efficient, as avoided impacts were found to be higher than the induced impacts for 13 out of 14 environmental indicators. It was also estimated that the transportation distance of recycled aggregate should increase 2–3 times before the induced impacts outweigh the avoided impacts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The plastic management, specifically plastic packaging management, represents one of the main sectors responsible for environmental and health impacts. The European Commission, in 2018, released a Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy and a new Packaging Waste Directive for closing the loop of this management system, forcing member states to recycle 55% of plastic packaging by 2030. The level of circular economy in a supply chain can be measured with material flow analysis, a useful tool to help policy makers forecast the recycling capability and to provide suggestions for improving the plastic packaging management sustainability. Considering the gap in literature in this field, the principal aim of this paper is to apply material flow analysis to measure the level of circular economy in the 2017 Italian plastic packaging management, by using the software STAN 2.6. Particularly, it assessed its post-consumer recycling rate, according to the new calculation method established by the Waste Directive. Secondly, this result is compared with that of the other EU-28 countries. The findings indicate that Italy has a good recycling rate, almost 44%, and that the energy recovery and landfill levels are about 40% and nearly 17%, respectively. There is room for making plastic waste management more efficient. Some of the EU-28 countries have wide margins of improvement thanks to large amounts of plastic packaging in landfills, whereas others, although they present good recycling rates, could tackle some problems in adopting the circular economy approach because they continue to burn plastic packaging in waste-to-energy plants. • EC forced member states to recycle 55% of plastic packaging by 2030. • MFA is used to assess the Italian plastic packaging management and its CE levels. • Italy showed a good recycling rate with room for improvement. • Comparison of the diverse EU waste management strategies is useful for policymakers. • Some EU countries could limit CE levels through the use of waste-to-energy plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]