REGULATORY UPDATE

Reform of waste regulations

Legislative Decree n. 121 was published in the Official Gazette of 14 September 2020. It entered into force on 29 September 2020 and introduced a new organic discipline on the subject of landfilling.

The legislator – due to the pressure exerted by the European community on the issue of the circular economy and in particular on the reduction of the waste disposal, on the prevention of waste production and on the push for reuse and recycling – has made changes to the historic Legislative Decree 13^thJanuary 2003, n. 36.

The Decree defines the progressive reduction of the use of landfills, setting the target of 10% (by weight) of the waste disposal by 2035, a new and uniform calculation methods to measure the achievement of the objectives, the prohibition of disposing in landfills waste from separate collection and intended for recycling or preparation for reuse, or in any case (starting from 2030) suitable for recycling or recovery in other types of plants

The Decree also incorporates the criteria for the admissibility of waste in landfills referred to the Ministerial Decree 27^th September 2010 – which is completely repealed with the exception of letter a) in table 5, of art. 6, valid until 1 January 2024 (concentration limits of the DOC parameter for some types of waste) – governing the first characterization (for the waste producer), the compliance check (for the plant operator) and introducing more precise rules for all types of waste.

Finally, the authorization procedures, the definitive closure and post-operational management procedures are also updated.