On 15 January 2021 the second regional workshop of the SUBTRACT project in Umbria was held online by AURI, the Umbrian Waste and Water Authority and Lead Partner of the project. The meeting proved to be very fruitful be it because of the interesting contributions be it for the interesting observations of the stakeholders who participated.
The Minister for the Environment of the Umbria Region, Roberto Morroni, welcomed with great interest the initiatives related to the SUBTRACT project, stressing the importance of the economic aspects related to the re-use centres. He also pointed out that the Regional Waste Plan is currently being drafted and stressed the importance of building a model that can bring innovation in the reuse area to Umbria, not the least because of projects like SUBTRACT.
Mario Sunseri president of SGI Ingegneria, who was appointed by AURI to draw up the Waste Area Plan for the Umbria Region highlighted the need for a link between the citizens and those responsible for managing reuse centres in a logic of scalability. Alessandra Santucci of the Regional Environmental Centre of Umbria ARPA illustrated the priority criteria in waste management both from a regulatory and from a recycling objective point of view. Among the data reported by Santucci concerning the fractions of recyclable waste in Umbria, it is interesting to underline the 22% of the textile fraction that could be destined for reuse. Daniele Carissimi, regional councilor and environmental lawyer, described the limits of the current regulations on reuse. In Italy the preparation for reuse is being discussed since 11 years, in a regulatory limbo where Europe has given clear indications to include such practices in order to trigger the circular economy. Until now on the national level no ministerial decree has been issued that would help the regions to move forward in exploiting the full potentials of reuse.
