Around 400,000 tonnes a year of used tyres will, from now on, become part of our country's circular economy – as "secondary raw material" – rather than being disposed of as waste. This is the goal that Environment minister Sergio Costa has achieved with the signing of the second of the decrees dubbed "End of waste", which took place at the beginning of April. An initiative that, as well as bringing environmental benefits, will provide work, at this difficult time, for 25 specialist companies (employing a total of around a thousand people) which in Italy are involved in producing granules for use in the road surfacing, sports facilities, construction and urban furnishings sectors. A small but important step forward, albeit one that comes at a time when environmental policies risk being pushed into the background by the coronavirus emergency.

Sergio Costa @SergioCosta_Gen

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Un raggio di sole in questo periodo buio.Firmato il decreto #EndOfWaste per gli pneumatici esausti. 400mila tonnellate l'anno che diventano asfalto, panchine, campi da calcio ecc ecc. Dobbiamo ripensare la nostra economia, dalla vecchia lineare e infinita a quella nuova circolare

♥ 628💬 42 1 apr 2020 · Apri su X →

A national recycling system

The new system created by the decree, which defines in detail the types of waste permitted for processing at plants, alongside a testing and traceability system that will guarantee the quality and safety of the resulting applications, ensures the collection and recovery of all used tyres. This is made possible by widespread and consistent collection from aftermarket operators across the entire national territory.

Read also: Coronavirus. For minister Costa, this is the moment to change the development paradigm

For minister Costa, "this is a supply chain that, over ten years, has transformed used tyres from a problem to be managed into a precious resource. Enabling more than half of the quantity of tyres collected to be converted into 'secondary raw material'. A sector that can act as a driver for the development of companies and professional skills, with an ever-growing range of useful applications for the benefit of citizens."

The one on used tyres is the second in chronological order from the "End of waste" package, which comprises around twenty decrees in total: the first to come into force, last May (giving companies until November to comply), was the one on absorbents, 900,000 tonnes of waste "saved" from landfill to become a mixture of plastics, superabsorbent polymer and cellulose. The next ones, which had been expected this spring, concern the recovery of waste paper (six and a half million tonnes on an annual basis) and construction and demolition waste: fully 51 million tonnes, around 70 per cent of the total end of waste.

Environmentalists' concerns about the slow pace of the "End of waste" decrees

The decree on used tyres, and the "End of waste" package as a whole more broadly, enjoy wide support among Italian environmental associations. However, given the time elapsed between the first and second decree (more than ten months) and the possible slowdowns due to the coronavirus emergency, the main concern is precisely the slow pace at which progress is being made. According to Annalisa Corrado, spokesperson for Green Italia, "the decree itself is fine, but I find myself saying: 'About time!' The trouble is that many others are still missing; things are moving forward very slowly, partly because of the emergency situation that has arisen, but today, if many of the realities that will be created by the 'End of waste' decrees were already up and running, they could have been a great help."

Rossella Muroni @RossellaMuroni

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Uno degli effetti collaterali del #coronavirus è la voglia diffusa di deroghe dalla #plastictax alla gestione #rifiuti. Al contrario tutelare l’ambiente è la nostra migliore difesa dalla crisi e dalle pandemie. Il mio punto di vista sul @fattoquotidiano bit.ly/39GBeNj

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The risk instead, according to Corrado, is that the epidemic itself will slow down, if not outright derail, the Green new deal path the government has only just begun: "We hope that the urgency of intervening to relaunch the economy will not lead to environmental protections being abandoned. Attempts are being made to open new landfills instead of biogas plants in areas where there are high risks for local populations."

And then there is the opposition's demand to suspend the so-called plastic tax, which under last year's budget law is due to come into force in July: "Costa's openness to this frightened me – the Green Italia spokesperson concludes. Green taxation is a very complex and wide-ranging issue, of which this is only the very first hint; if we backtrack on this too, we are in a truly dire position." The warning has been sounded: the new Marshall Plan for recovery must be the Green new deal.