To this end, the Strategy acts on the materials purchasing chain (Minimum Environmental Criteria for green procurement in the Public Administration), on the criteria for the cessation of waste status (End of Waste), on the extended responsibility of the producer and the role of the consumer, and on the spread of sharing practices and product-as-a-service models. The Strategy is also a fundamental instrument for achieving climate neutrality goals and defines a roadmap of actions and measurable targets between now and 2035.’
A strategy in 10 points
1) Governance of the strategy
2) New waste traceability system
3) Tax incentives to support recycling and use of secondary raw materials
4) Revision of the environmental taxation system for waste, in order to make recycling more advantageous than landfilling and incineration within the national territory
5) Right to reuse and repair
6) Reform of the EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) system and of the Consortia through the creation of a specific supervisory body, chaired by the MiTE
7) Support for existing legislation, from waste laws (regional and national) to the development of the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM)
8) Support for industrial symbiosis projects through regulatory and financial instruments
9) Measures for land use from a circular economy perspective
10) Measures for the use of water resources from a circular economy perspective
The measure, which is precisely a ‘timetable’, sets out the timing for adopting the reforms outlined by the June National Strategy for the Circular Economy. Of note is the commitment to send the draft ministerial decree defining the rules for the National electronic register for waste traceability (Rentri) to the Council of State and the European Commission by 30 September 2022.
There is also the commitment to identify, in the second quarter of 2023, the environmentally harmful subsidies that hinder the implementation of the National Strategy for the Circular Economy, defining legislative measures for their elimination.
The Ministry also committed to defining draft decrees for the establishment of extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes for strategic ‘circular’ supply chains: textiles (by the end of 2022) and non-packaging plastics (in the fourth quarter of 2022).
Also by the end of 2022, the regulation under Article 214-ter, paragraph 2, of Legislative Decree 152/2006 on the simplified authorisation for preparation for reuse was due to be adopted.
It remains to be seen whether and how these commitments will be taken up by the Meloni government and the new ministry.
The former Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, has been recruited by the new prime minister as an unpaid adviser, albeit to deal with the energy emergency until the end of winter. We will therefore see whether the timetable goes ahead.
