Marco Mattiello, international relations manager at Contarina SpA, gave the lecture about his company’s success in delivering an 85% recycling rate in the historic city of Treviso and villages and towns in the foothills of the Alps, north of Venice. Mr Mattiello was speaking to the association members and guests at the event which was held at the National Liberal Club in London.
The Contarina success in recycling is often championed at events across Europe as an example of how high recycling can be reached with almost zero waste.
Kerbside
Employing 800 people, the company provides kerbside collection of recyclables and a separate collection of food waste and also collects residual waste. It charges for residual waste on a ‘pay-as-you-throw’ basis after levying a basic annual charge on households for waste collection. The basic charge entitles households to a set number of collections but once these are used up, ‘pay-as-you-throw’ kicks in.
Mr Mattiello said that the organisation was working in a “really different context” serving “the beautiful city of Treviso and working in the beginning of the Alps in towns with a population of 10,000-20,000 or less.” It covers a land area of 1,300 sq km with about 554,000 inhabitants and 260,000 total users.
He put the success of the recycling achievement down to several factors including a lot of work on educating residents about the benefits of recycling. And, he argued that not having waste infrastructure in the region was important. “Another pillar is not having landfill or incineration, it is more difficult if you have these. You have to feed the investment and having an incinerator near your territory will not help a lot.”
WRAP
The “pay-as-you-throw” aspect of the Contarina work was noted by former WRAP board member and recycling expert Nick Francis. He said: “In 2006 WRAP put three ‘pay-as-you-throw’ pilot projects forward and these were flatly rejected by government. They said it was completely politically unacceptable.”
Responding, Mr Mattiello suggested that there was a view in the city areas of northern Italy (south of Contarina) that ‘pay-as-you-throw’ wouldn’t work in these areas whereas the rural nature of Contarina made it more feasible.
He said: “Italy has especially in the north, there are three or four waste management companies using incinerators that are not using the ‘pay-as-you-throw’ scheme. Most of the time they are laughing at us because you are working in that context and they say the mentality 100km south will not work.”
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But, he revealed that Contarina is now getting municipalities from outside its area coming forward to ask for advice and guidance.
Definition
And, referencing Contarina’s success, Jake Hayler, executive director of the Environmental Services Association, noted that the definition of recycling may be revised by the European Union. And he queried with regard to Contarina as to how much material was was rejected after the sorting process.
Resource Association chief executive, Ray Georgeson ended the event saying: “It looks to me that the conclusion is that ‘pay-as-you-throw’ is the reason for the recycling success.” He also noted that it didn’t appear to be down to just the communications work carried out in Contarina as programmes to reach the public also happened in the UK.
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