Assessment of environmental and economic benefits of packaging waste system in Italy

The paper quantifies social costs and social benefits of packaging waste management system in Italy from 2015 to 2030. Future social costs and benefits are estimated based on the growth of waste generated and on the stringency of recycling and landfilling targets. Packaging waste generation is projected based on macroeconomic factors, consumer practices and technological eco-innovations. Social benefits are derived by the reduction of externalities’ correspondent to the achievement of packaging waste management targets. We quantify two environmental benefits: avoided emissions and raw materials saved. We find that social costs may rise substantially in the future, as total system’s operations costs in 2030 may increase by 48% with respect to 2015, due to the growth in the quantities of packaging waste generated. Meeting recycling and landfilling targets set by the new Circular Economy Package would imply a further 5% increase in total social costs in 2015. This latter increase is more than compensated by social benefits related to the reduction in externalities due to more stringent targets.