The 2024 Annual Report of the Waste Observatory of the Metropolitan City of Turin, published on Dec. 17, offers an in-depth analysis of municipal waste management in the metropolitan territory in 2023, with the aim of providing the Consorzi di Area Vasta (CAVs), municipalities and the Regional Area Conference with tools to monitor and improve waste management.
The data presented referring to the 2023 survey year show, in contrast to last year's, an increase in waste production of nearly 49,000 tons (+4.6 percent), also surpassing the 2018 peak. The increase is generalized across all territorial areas but with marked differences: it goes from +0.6 percent in CB16 to +10.6 percent in the CCS area.
Regarding the per capita production of municipal waste, there is a new and very significant increase (503 kg/inhabit equal to +4.8% compared to 2022) that not only brings production back to pre-pandemic values, but also far exceeds them. The results are far from the PRUBAI target of 448 kg/inhabitant/year set for 2035. Although it is worth noting that the target value is to be reached in more than 10 years, it is worth noting that active policies and concrete tools to target the goal cannot be implemented close to the deadline. Tourist areas, particularly the mountain crown, have the highest per capita production, influenced by the periodic presence of nonresidents.
In 2023, the total production of undifferentiated urban waste (UW) in the metropolitan area was 398.68 tons, slightly down from 2022 (-0.9%), which had already shown a reduction compared to 2021. The value, however, comes net of uneven results from individual CAVs, confirming an unordered trend since it is not the result of specific policies. The City of Turin shows a reduction that is not particularly important (-2 percent) but confirms a trend of recent years.
The most positive figure concerns the percentage of separate collection, which has grown slightly, thanks to the extension of home and neighborhood services. The percentage of RD is increasing (+2%), thus reaching the metropolitan average of 64% (still below the national target of 65%, required by current legislation). It shows that in 2023 the 65 percent target is also reached by all areas except the City of Turin, which stops at 57.2 percent, and the Teknoservice-managed CCA.
The Report also analyzes the commodity composition of sorted waste: the fractions of organic/green and paper are confirmed as the two main ones, accounting for about half of the collection.
More than half of the metropolitan municipalities have exceeded 65 percent separate waste collection by 2022. In general, except for Turin, more than half of the largest municipalities (class above 20,000 inhabitants) have exceeded 65 percent DR, and this is a particularly comforting finding.
The report ends with the prospect of a general change in city collection systems, paving the way for more sustainable waste management in the Turin Metropolis.