In 2017, municipal waste produced was 488.7 kg per inhabitant (-1.6% compared to 2016); the ratio of separate collection to total municipal waste reached 55.5% (+3.0 percentage points on the previous year).
The highest levels of municipal waste production were found in Emilia-Romagna (642.2 kg per inhabitant) and Toscana (600.0). Molise (377.0) and Basilicata (345.2), on the other hand, were the lowest- producing regions.
The separate collection of municipal waste grew in all regions, except for Friuli-Venezia Giulia (-1.6 percentage points) which, however, was one of the most virtuous regions: it exceeded in fact the goal of 65 % of separate waste collection. The autonomous province of Trento ranked the first with 74.6% of separate waste collection; followed by Veneto (73.6%), Lombardia (69.6%), the autonomous province of Bolzano (68.5) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (65.5).
In 2018 it is estimated that 87.1% of households regularly carried out the separate collection of plastics (39.7% in 1998), 71.3% of aluminum (27.8%), 86.6% of paper (46.9%) and 85.9% of glass (52.6%).
The percentage of households that constantly separate paper waste exceeded the national average in the North-west and North-east regions (91.6% and 90.4%, respectively in 2018) while in the Centre and the South it stabilised at 86.6% and 84.8%.
The share of households that consider the cost of waste high (68.2%) remained high and in line with the previous year, while 28.2% considered it adequate and only 0.7% considered it low.
In 2018, households dissatisfied with the door-to-door waste collection service complained mainly about low frequency of waste collection (60.9%), smell of uncollected organic waste (42.4% of households) and the management of bags/containers for collection (35.3%).