Italy is strengthening its waste-management system around compostable packaging. New rules make certified biodegradable and compostable packaging mandatory for selected single-use applications, while municipalities receive higher payments for cleaner organic-waste streams containing compostable plastics. The measures reinforce Italy’s strategy of collecting compostable packaging together with food waste and processing it through the country’s organic-waste treatment infrastructure.
Personal Remarks
Amid all the EU rhetoric around waste management, Italy managed to convince Brussels that compostable plastics were the best solution for organic-waste collection. Yet the Italian state is also a shareholder in a major compostable-plastics producer. That conflict of interest deserves far more scrutiny. If the system fails, the compostable-plastics crisis could become one of Italy’s biggest waste-management scandals.