Street sweeping waste: new “End of Waste” regulation

There is a combination of words that sounds like a revolution in the context of waste management: end of waste – the end of waste, or rather the closing of a circular economy circle in which waste, in fact, loses its status as “waste” to acquire that of a product, as reported in the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC).

In particular, art. 6 states that “certain waste shall cease to be waste when it has undergone a recovery, including recycling, operation and complies with specific criteria to be developed in accordance with the following conditions:

• the substance or object is commonly used for specific purposes;
• a market or demand exists for such a substance or object;
• the substance or object fulfils the technical requirements for the specific purposes and meets the existing legislation and standards applicable to products;
• the use of the substance or object will not lead to overall adverse environmental or human health impacts.”

In the wake of this legislation, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security recently launched a public consultation for the new regulation that governs the end-of-waste status of inert materials from street sweeping.

This regulation aims to maximize the recovery and reuse of these materials, reducing landfill disposal. An objective that the Gruppo Esposito has been pursuing for some time, thanks to the more 11 treatment plants for street sweeping soil, and not only, distributed throughout the country.

Acting in accordance with the principles of end of waste is not only an advantage in environmental terms: the treatment of street sweeping waste in material recovery plants also brings an economic benefit to the community, thanks to the possibility of applying lower rates than those usually practiced by disposal plants (landfills, waste-to-energy plants).