Fifteen years ago, separate waste collection was little more than a promise in much of Italy. Today it is one of the fastest and most measurable environmental transformations in the country's recent history: there are provincial towns recycling more than 90% of their waste and large cities that have nearly doubled their rates in a decade and a half.
In this analysis we line up ISPRA data on urban waste management, available municipality by municipality from 2010 to 2024: who recycles the most, who has fallen behind, who produces the least waste in absolute terms and why tourist towns appear to produce enormous quantities. The picture covers more than 7,700 Italian municipalities and tells the story of a geography in full motion, where the old North-South divide is being overturned in unexpected ways.
The decade of separate collection
To understand how much Italy's waste landscape has changed, look at the trajectory of its largest cities. In 2010 Milan separated 33.8% of its urban waste; by 2024 it had reached 63.3%, within touching distance of the EU target of 65%. This is an exceptional result for a metropolis of over one million inhabitants: few large European cities of this size can claim similar figures.
The Milanese turnaround has a precise name: door-to-door collection of organic waste, extended to the entire city between 2012 and 2014. It is clearly visible in the data: the rate jumps from 36.8% in 2012 to 49.9% in 2014, thirteen points in two years. Growth has continued more slowly since then, a sign that the last mile, from 60% to 70%, is the hardest to cover.
Milan: separate waste collection 2010-2024
Percentage of urban waste collected separately in Milan, ISPRA data
Rome catches up, at a capital's pace
Rome's trajectory tells a different story. In 2010 the capital separated barely 21.1% of its waste; by 2024 it had reached 48%, more than doubling. This is real progress, but the comparison with Milan remains stark: a fifteen-point gap and a curve that has visibly slowed in recent years, hovering between 43% and 48% since 2018.
The reasons are well known: a vast municipal territory, a chronically insufficient treatment infrastructure and street-side collection that never became door-to-door in many neighbourhoods. Yet the absolute numbers show the scale of the challenge: in 2024 Rome handled over 1.6 million tonnes of urban waste, almost 600 kilograms per inhabitant. Every percentage point gained by the capital is worth, in tonnes, as much as the entire recycling of whole provinces.
Rome: separate waste collection 2010-2024
Percentage of urban waste collected separately in Rome, ISPRA data
The recycling cities: who exceeds 90%
Looking only at municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, where separate collection is organisationally harder, the ranking rewards Italy's mid-sized towns. At the top is Correggio, in the province of Reggio nell'Emilia, with 92.5% separate collection. Two Campanian towns follow, Bacoli at 91.2% and Ottaviano at 91.1%, then Bra in Piedmont at 91% and Paese, near Treviso, at 90.7%.
Just below the podium cluster the historic recycling districts: Suzzara near Mantua at 90.5%, Montebelluna at 89.3%, Capannori in Tuscany, a pioneer of the zero-waste strategy, at 88.8%, and a compact Emilian squad with Castelfranco Emilia, Mirandola and Scandiano all above 88.5%. Among provincial capitals, Ferrara stands out at 88.4%: proof that a capital city with more than 130,000 inhabitants can also operate at excellence levels.
Italy's 15 best recycling cities
Separate collection rate in municipalities with over 20,000 inhabitants, ISPRA data 2024
The North-South divide turned upside down
The geography of recycling dismantles the stereotype of a hopelessly lagging South. In the ranking of recycling cities, Campania places three municipalities in the top fifteen: Bacoli and Ottaviano on the podium and Marcianise at 87.9%. The province of Naples, the symbol of the waste emergency fifteen years ago, today hosts some of the most efficient collection systems in the country. And among small municipalities the absolute national record belongs to Domicella, in the province of Avellino, which approaches 100%.
The lag, however, has not disappeared: it has concentrated. Among cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, the bottom positions are almost all in the South: Palma di Montechiaro, in Sicily, is last with 12.4% separate collection, followed by Pagani in Campania at 13.7% and Palermo, Italy's fifth-largest city, stuck at 17.3%. Just above are Taranto and Foggia, both at 24.3%, and Castel Volturno at 26.9%. The problem is no longer the South as a whole: it is a fracture within the same regions, with virtuous towns and towns in crisis just a few kilometres apart.
The cities furthest behind on recycling
Lowest separate collection rates among municipalities with over 20,000 inhabitants, ISPRA data 2024
Where the top recycling towns are concentrated
Regional distribution of Italy's top 50 municipalities by separate collection rate
Who produces the least waste: the real virtue
Recycling matters, but the top rung of the EU waste hierarchy is not producing waste at all. Here the ranking changes completely: the municipalities producing the least waste per inhabitant are small towns in the inner areas of the South. The record belongs to Spinete, in the province of Campobasso, with just 85 kilograms of urban waste per inhabitant per year, followed by Fardella and Teana, near Potenza, with 86 and 95 kilograms.
For scale: the average for a large Italian city exceeds 500 kilograms per inhabitant. In the small towns of Molise, Basilicata and Calabria, more sober consumption patterns, widespread home composting and the absence of tourist and commercial flows all play a role. These are often depopulating territories, and that is the flip side: producing little waste, in Italy, is also a demographic symptom.
The municipalities producing the least waste
Urban waste produced per inhabitant per year, lowest values in Italy, ISPRA data 2024
The tourist-town paradox
At the opposite end of the ranking lies a phenomenon that is only apparently scandalous: the municipalities producing the most waste per inhabitant are almost all tourist destinations. Limone sul Garda leads with 3,324 kilograms per resident per year, almost forty times Spinete. Bentivoglio, near Bologna, follows with 2,545 kilograms, then Lignano Sabbiadoro with 2,325 and Portofino with 2,260.
The reason is statistical before it is environmental: tourists produce waste too, but the denominator counts residents only. Limone sul Garda has around a thousand inhabitants and millions of tourist overnight stays each year; Portofino is the extreme case of a tiny village visited by enormous crowds. Bentivoglio is different again: there, logistics and industrial hubs weigh in, with their assimilated waste counted as urban. It is an important reminder when reading any per-capita ranking: the data always tells the truth, but not always the truth it seems to.
The municipalities producing the most waste per inhabitant
Urban waste per resident: tourist destinations lead, as visitors inflate the numerator, ISPRA data 2024
The EU 65% target and the road ahead
The European directive sets the separate collection bar at 65%, and the municipal snapshot shows an Italy moving at three speeds. There is an Italy that passed the target years ago, made up of entire districts, the Treviso area of Veneto, Emilia, much of provincial Lombardy, and southern surprises such as Campania's virtuous belt. There is a metropolitan Italy getting there, with Milan at 63.3% now on the threshold. And there is an Italy stuck below 30%, concentrated in parts of Sicily, Calabria and Puglia, where infrastructure and management gaps remain structural.
The lesson of the 2010-2024 data is nevertheless encouraging: no lag is irreversible. Bacoli and Ottaviano, today above 91%, started from emergency-level rates. Milan gained thirty points in fifteen years. Separate collection is one of the few public policies where results, when the right choices are made, arrive within two or three years and last. You can explore your municipality's data, with the full time series since 2010, on the dedicated DatiItalia pages.