Plastic, the Italians collect and separate it. But one refusal on two goes to an incinerator. "Solutions? Less consumption and more reuse"

The questioning of a municipal councilor of Parma on the destination of the differentiated waste brings to light the bitter truth: the 50-65% of that which the residents of the Emilian city select is actually brought to the incinerator to be burned. Compared to the national average and considering the commitment of citizens, which allowed Parma to reach the alliance80% of differentiated, the percentage of waste that ends up in the incinerator it's high, but it's not a cold shower for the experts. This is a problem (not only Italian), which has several causes. Just think of the controversy unleashed last September, after the declarations of Alessia Scappini, managing director of Alia, which manages the waste of 58 municipalities in Tuscany. "Bioplastics in composting plants – he said – are discarded or end up in fragments that contaminate the final compost". What happen? They become unsorted waste and as such they must also be disposed of. In short, we are moving in the opposite direction to that indicated by the EU. The incineration of waste, the experts point out, is not part of the rule of the three ‘R’ (reduce, reuse and recycle) on which the European standards of the last decades are based. According to estimates, the production of plastic will increase by 40% in the next ten years. "For a long time we were told that recycling would be the solution, but of all the plastic produced since the 1950s, only 9% was properly recycled," he explains to ilfattoquotidiano.it Giuseppe Ungherese, Head of the Pollution Campaign of Greenpeace Italy, according to which "recycling is important, but it will not be enough to save the Planet".

THE PARMA CASE – Meanwhile, the Parma one risked becoming a political case in the city that Mayor Federico Pizzarotti has nominated for "European Green Capital 2022". And yet, before the questioning of the centrist adviser Fabrizio Pezzuto, the Councilor for the Environment Tiziana Benassi he could only reveal the numbers: "10-15% of the plastic is discarded in a first selection and 40-50% in a second". As reported by the newspaper The truth frost has fallen in the courtroom and, to Pezzuto's question, which asked what happened to that 50-65% rejected, the exponent of the junta replied: "He is brought to the incinerator to be burned ". It is the same plant as the multiutility Iren against whom Pizzarotti had lined up in 2012, at the time of his election campaign, when he was still in the ranks of 5 Star Movement. After months of controversy, in 2013 the plant started and the citizen wrote to the citizens: "I did everything that was possible with the powers of a mayor". Since then Pizzarotti has founded the party Italy in Common and Iren is an important partner of the administration today.

THE NATIONAL DATA – But is it really surprising to see these percentages? Indeed, compared to national data, in Parma (where systems such as 'door to door' and 'point rates' are applied) the percentages of collected waste but not recyclable they are taller. "When we talk about a first selection – he explains to ilfattoquotidiano.it Antonello Ciotti, president of Corepla (National consortium for the collection of plastic packaging) – we refer to what is not packaging, such as toys, slippers, wrongly differentiated glasses ”. The so-called "impure". There average national is al 9%. The second quota discarded (in Parma we are at 40-50%) concerns, instead, "what is not recyclable – continues Ciotti – mechanically, because it is impossible to separate the various plastics". Examples are the trays to preserve Ham, the sachets containing the snacks and complex containers. We are 40% as the national average, “of which half is used – adds Ciotti – in cement factories and replaces the carbon pet". In Italy, therefore, it comes 51% recycled of the plastic that the citizens collect.

HARVEST COLLECTION – It is clear, therefore, that behind the separate collection (which remains an objective to be pursued) there are some pitfalls. "Plastic is a multi-stream collection, because we are not talking about a single material – explains a ilfattoquotidiano.it Laura Brambilla, national manager of the campaign "We clean the world" by Legambiente – therefore, while the eye of the mortal common the plastic would be put all together, few are those that have a value ". The responsibility are they citizens? "Yes, but the Municipalities have different tools to accompany them on a journey, while explaining well what is the proper way to carry out the collection. As regards the bioplastics, meanwhile, must be recognized – underlines – e inserted in the staff: if they end with plastic, they contaminate the quality. If you are not sure thrown into the undifferentiated". And then there are checks and sanctions "but unfortunately, in Italy, the principle" is little appliedthe polluter pays' ".

NOT EVERYTHING IS RECYCLED – The problem, however, does not end with theimpure. "Not all packaging plastic on the market today is recycled even if correctly differentiated"Explains Hungarian. The reasons can be manifold. "Plastics mixed heterogeneous (films, films and single-layer plastics) – he adds – can represent a substantial proportion of the waste from packaging collection (between 20 and 50% depending on the selection platform). Only in rare cases they are sent for recycling “but most of the time they end up in landfills or in incinerators, very often not for the technical impossibility of recycling them but for the absence of market demand "as documented by a recent report OECD. "Often, in fact – adds Ungherese – based on the price of oil, the virgin plastic it can be much cheaper than the recycled one ". There are also numerous problems related to recycling packaging composites polylaminates, consisting of multiple materials, such as plastic and metal. Two examples: the gray package containing the vacuum coffee of our moka and the vast majority of the toothpaste tubes on the market. Then there is the phenomenon of downcycling: "Packaging plastic, instead of being used for new packaging made of recycled plastic, comes reprocessed to create products of inferior quality that are difficult to recycle ”.

RECYCLING LIMITS – All this has some consequences. "If half of the plastic that I give to the plant is not recyclable, it must then be discarded and disposed of a cost for the Municipalities, because I have to send it to the incinerator, "he explains Laura Brambilla. This is why, to date, collecting high-quality plastic from the recycling point of view is an objective to be pursued at least as much as that of differentiated quotas. The European Union has imposed a minimum target of collection of 65%, net of waste. However, recycling does not solve the problem, as pointed out Enzo Favoino, scientific coordinator of Zero Waste Europe and researcher at the Agricultural School of the Park of Monza, who oversaw the report Plastic: recycling is not enough commissioned by Greenpeace. The "Plastic StrategyAdopted in 2018 by the EU which also includes the recent one Disposable Plastics Directive, provides a mix of measures to increase the efficiency of the recycling chain. "Mechanisms such as the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or the possible introduction of security deposit systems – he explains – can help to increase recycling, but not to bridge the difference between what is released for consumption and recycled tons". The solutions, according to Favoino, can only be “la consumption reduction plastic and an industry commitment to design packaging that, in addition to recycling, point to durability and reuse".

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