Simultaneously combining the goals to decarbonise, conserve the Earth’s natural resources and improve social well-being is the new horizon of the 2022-2027 Regional waste management and polluted site remediation plan (known under the Italian acronym Prrb) that the Emilia-Romagna Region will be adopting after the Legislative Assembly’s final approval comes in, expected by the end of July.
The first draft was adopted by the Regional Council with deliberation of 27 December 2021 and publication in the Official Bulletin two days later. After this, the Draft Plan was filed and stakeholder opinions gathered: by 12 February, 334 opinions had been submitted, 23 of which were fully accepted by the Region and 89 partially accepted; the remaining were rejected (redundant or not pertinent).
The Region stated that the document was based on a different logic than in the past in order to build a tool that could act as a driver of the ecological transition. The expectation is that the regional gross domestic product will start expanding again and exceed pre-pandemic levels, with the awareness that economic growth must be decoupled from resource use, to implement genuine forms of circular economy.
This regulatory document is key for Emilia-Romagna-based businesses involved in special waste management, as it provides the guidelines and trends for the coming years.
The new Prrb establishes clear strategic goals for special waste management:
- reduce non-hazardous special waste generation by 5% and hazardous special waste generation by 10% per unit of GDP as defined by the National Prevention Programme;
- reduce the hazard level of special waste [article 180, paragraph 2, letter i), Italian Legislative Decree 152/2006];
- reduce solid landfill waste generation by 10%, over 2018 figures;
- develop recovery supply chains (green economy);
- develop supply chains for by-product use in line with the regional List;
- become self-sufficient in non-hazardous special waste disposal at regional level.
>> To stay up to date on Emilia-Romagna’s new Prrb
