The capital of the Liguria region in northern Italy joins Rome, Bari, Naples, Palermo, Messina, Catania and Reggio Calabria in the CONAI project to improve urban waste management. EUR 1,000,000 invested in the first year to create a single recycling market in line with the European strategy for the circular economy

Genoa becomes the eighth Italian city to join the extraordinary plan launched by the National Packaging Consortium (CONAI) to enhance separate waste collection and develop a more sustainable and harmonised urban system. The initiative aligns with the objectives of the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and the new strategy for a circular internal market recently announced by European Commission Executive Vice-President, Stéphane Séjourné.

Genoa's entry was made official during a speech by CONAI Deputy General Manager Fabio Costarella at the 1st National ECOSOSTENIBILITY Forum in Rapallo (Genoa), an event dedicated to ecological transition and sustainable development, which brought together institutions, businesses and experts to discuss the challenges of environmental sustainability and the circular economy.

With an initial investment of one million euros, the project aims to structurally intervene on the complexities of the urban collection system, promoting concrete actions on the entire packaging management chain: training for operators, information campaigns aimed at citizens, and technical support to local administrations also in the start-up phase.

“The entry of Genoa consolidates the scope of the plan, which now involves cities representing about half the population of the regions involved," said Fabio Costarella. "Our goal is to improve the quality and quantity of separate waste collection in the most complex urban contexts, while contributing to the European design of an increasingly circular and competitive economy”.

The initiative is in line with the vision outlined by Stéphane Séjourné, European Commissioner for Industry, Entrepreneurship, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and the Single Market, who emphasised in recent days that green transition must become a concrete industrial opportunity. ( https://  multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/it/  webstreaming/plenary-  session_20250521-0900-PLENARY) "The single market is one of the greatest strengths of the Union, but today it must be able to respond to the needs of 450 million consumers. We will harmonise labelling and waste rules to create a single market also for recycling," said Séjourné. "Today, a milk producer has to print different labels for each country he sells to; this has to stop. We need a harmonized, modern, and more understandable system for everyone." Thanks to the support of ANCI, the National Association of Italian Municipalities of the CONAI system, and the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security, the inclusion of Genoa represents a further step forward in the construction of a European industrial model in which waste becomes a resource, generating economic and environmental value within a single market of the circular economy.

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