Experiencing Urban Mining in an Italian Municipality towards a Circular Economy vision

Abstract

Selective waste collection in Italy has undergone significant changes over the last decade, highlighting very different approaches from one region to another. Research results presented in this paper are underlying differences between geographical regions and use them as a model of good practices to improve the less optimized systems. In the last decade, the Trento City Council has established a goal – the optimization of selective municipal solid waste collection – that led to a very low amount of recyclable materials in the residual fraction. More than that, for the first time sanitary textiles have been considered as a separable fraction at the source; for a long time this type of waste was considered negligible. These actions were transformed in a recycling program coordinated together with local recycling companies. This paper deals with factors associated with waste recycling, like specific criteria (waste containers selections for door-to-door collection, public awareness and tariff) and solutions (door-to-door bins, warnings, criteria for historic centers). The tourist characteristics of Trento makes it an interesting model for similar towns that are facing with the problem of optimization criteria. This opportunity is discussed referring to a Romanian case.