To understand the real impact that innovative policy measures have on the effectiveness and sustainability of waste management procedures, the five partners of the SMART WASTE project chose one policy instrument to be assessed and improved. The result of this activity for Tuscany Region, conducted by ARRR (Regional Resource Recovery Agency) is now available. ARRR evaluated the Operational Programme for European Regional Development Funds of Tuscany Region for the programming period 2014 – 2020 (Tuscany ERDF OP 2014-2020). The report explains how ARRR has assessed the support given to innovation in Tuscany ERDF OP 2014-2020 in the following four main fields:
- Waste streams involved;
- Levels of the European waste hierarchy;
- Specific kind of support;
- Quantitative evaluation of policy instrument capacity to reach environmental targets, if any such target were included in the policy instrument.
The process has been carried out in several steps, during which the interregional exchange of experiences was essential for the development of the evaluation methodology. In addition, contributions from Tuscany’s local stakeholder group were the primary source of insight into general failures and successes of the Tuscany ERDF OP in supporting innovation in waste management. As shown in the report, the evaluation highlighted a positive aspect which is the funding of projects for innovation in waste recycling. However, there is a lack of support for innovation in waste prevention and in municipal waste management.
Among the next steps listed in the report, ARRR plans to work in close contact with the Tuscany Region offices in charge of developing the Operational Programme (OP) for European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) of Tuscany Region for the programming period 2021 – 2027. This way ARRR aims to contribute to developing an OP that can support further improving of innovation in waste management in Tuscany, capitalizing on SMART WASTE’s main results.
Read the full version of the report prepared by ARRR here.
