In Lajatico, Italy's second-richest town, 22.9% of waste is recycled. Roseto Valfortore, the fifth-poorest, reaches 72.9%.
Lajatico is the second-richest town in Italy. In these Tuscan hills, where Andrea Bocelli built his Theatre of Silence, the average declared income is €61,361 — almost three times the national average of €21,985. Yet in 2024 the town sorted just 22.9% of its waste for recycling. Fewer than one bag in four ends up in the right bin. The rest goes to landfill or the incinerator, as if kerbside collection had never arrived.
The idea that wealth brings an environmental conscience is convenient. Italy's ISPRA waste register takes it apart, town by town — and the richest towns come off worst.
Average declared income 2023, top eight towns. Source: DatiItalia, MEF data.
Portofino is the richest town in Italy, with an average income of €98,577. In 2024 it recycled 62.1% — above Lajatico, but below plenty of inland Calabrian villages that declare a fifth of that income. And it produced 2,260 kilos of waste per resident, the fourth-highest figure in the country. One Portofino resident throws away in a year what a whole apartment block does elsewhere.
The luxury coast follows the same script. In Capri recycling stops at 39.2%. In Santa Margherita Ligure at 46.1%. These are places of second homes and yachts, not forgotten suburbs. At the top of the per-capita waste ranking sits Limone sul Garda, on the lake.
Then comes the reverse. Roseto Valfortore, in the Daunia mountains above Foggia, is the fifth-poorest town in Italy: €11,219 of average income. It recycles 72.9%. Ripacandida, near Potenza, declares less than a third of Lajatico's income at €18,064 and sorts 98.5% of its waste — the second-highest rate in the country.
Municipal waste per capita 2024 (kg per resident), top eight towns. Source: DatiItalia, ISPRA data.
It would be neat to flip the story and say the poor recycle while the rich don't. They don't. Cavargna, above Lake Como, is the town with the lowest income in Italy: €7,349. It recycles 32.7%, barely more than Lajatico. Recycling has nothing to do with the wallet. It has everything to do with who runs the service.
Where kerbside collection works, the numbers jump. Domicella, in the Irpinia hills, reaches almost 100%. Whole towns in inland Campania and Basilicata, among the poorest by income, sort nearly all their waste because at some point an administration decided to make them. Those left behind are not the ones who can't afford it. They are the ones who never required it.
Recycling rate in Lajatico, 2010-2024. Source: DatiItalia, ISPRA data.
Recycling in Italy is not explained by wealth or geography. It is explained by the will of those who govern. In Lajatico the line has been flat for fifteen years: around twenty per cent in 2010, 22.9% today. In the meantime, poorer parts of Italy fitted chipped bins and sent collectors door to door.
Next time a wealthy town explains why it can't be done, the answer sits in the Daunia mountains: Roseto Valfortore sorts 72.9% of its waste on a fifth of Lajatico's income.