Good practice:

Direct C&D waste collection from citizens by AMA S.p.A.

The initiative taken by Rome Municipality, through AMA S.p.A. - its environmental company offering waste collection services -, was triggered by the problem of frequent illegal disposal of small amounts of C&D inert waste on the municipal territory by citizens doing simple renovation works in their houses.
In order to contribute to stop fly-tipping, by facilitating its collection in terms of logistic and costs, AMA S.p.A. allows citizens to dispose directly of their small quantities of demolition waste in the so called “Isole Ecologiche”, equipped collection areas spread throughout the Municipal territory. These areas are destined for the collection of urban waste and only for small amounts of special waste, but AMA S.p.A. accepts inert C&D waste for free from private owners. Small demolition companies, or construction companies who carry out demolition activities, are not allowed to dispose their waste in these areas, but need to rely on local inert waste recycling plants/landfills. The latter are quite widespread in the outer part of the town, but the delivery of waste from companies is subject to the payment of a fee, both in the case of disposal in landfills and in the case of recycling (lower rate).
The stakeholders involved in the practice are private owners, who benefit from the possibility of directly disposing of demolition waste for free, but also recycling operators, who periodically receive the waste collected in the “Isole Ecologiche” by AMA S.p.A.

This practice needs economic resources for the management of the C&D waste collected in the “Isole Ecologiche”, through the award of a contract for the transport and recycling of inert waste to one or more specialized plants in the municipal territory. The tender was approx. 50,000 euros per year.

The evidence that demonstrates the success of this practice is the increasing amount of inert waste collected in the “Isole Ecologiche” by AMA S.p.A. which has reached 18.478 tons in 2017.

The idea of allowing citizens to dispose of small amounts of inert demolition waste in widespread areas within the city is an easily replicable practice, potentially interesting for regions with large urban areas where recycling plants are far and not easy to be reached. This practice, without requiring the set up of a dedicated infrastructure, but relying on existing ecologic centres for the collection of urban waste, can contribute to increase the separate collection of inert C&D waste and its recycling rate.