As part of the funds made available by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Ministry for Ecological Transition has allocated one and a half billion euros for the construction of new waste management plants and for the modernization of existing ones destined to Municipalities and local authorities. In addition, another 600 million have been allocated for the realization of circular economy flagship projects to strengthen and implement strategic industrial chains and make up for the scarcity of raw materials, 65% of which is consumed in cities. Finally, a further 500 million were made available at the same time as the implementation of state-of-the-art monitoring and prevention systems to protect the territory and infrastructures, with the dual purpose of avoiding the illegal delivery of waste and arson associated with these activities. and the optimization of emergency waste management. These measures aim at the development of circular economy according to the guiding criteria of the European action plan with the aim of reaching the European recycling targets and contributing up to 50% to the achievement of the decarbonisation objectives.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition has published the decrees signed by Minister Roberto Cingolani with the selection criteria for the projects to be presented relating to separate collection, recycling plants and "flagship" initiatives for the paper and cardboard, plastics, WEEE and textiles sectors. . Notices were also published on the Mite website on 15 October, for the presentation of proposals aimed at awarding these funds.
Overall, however, the figures quoted may be insufficient in the face of the requests made by the companies in the sector in a recently published report (The European House - Ambrosetti). In fact, this document states that the sole need for infrastructure for waste management, removing the projects relating to the implementation of the circular economy and the adoption of monitoring systems, is considerable and estimated at no less than 2.5 billion. (therefore a billion more than the government has decided to allocate for the installation of new waste management systems), necessary for the modernization of the plant system.
At the same time as the publication of the calls for the implementation of the PNRR, the MiTE launched, with the support of ISPRA and ENEA, a public consultation on the programmatic lines of the national strategy for the circular economy, open until November 30, 2021 in order to open the reflection on this issue as much as possible, which can give effective and shared answers about long-term national strategies regarding the circular economy.