While the world is questioning the actions to be taken for an ecological transition that can find a balance between development and the environment, as emerged recently at the global summit in Milan which preceded the Cop-26 conference in Glasgow at the end of October, the industry continues its commitment to identifying increasingly green processes and solutions to mature in the context of climate change.
It is no coincidence that an increasing number of companies, despite the crisis caused by Coronavirus, have not renounced to innovate and bet on environmental sustainability, and, indeed, that some players have decided to raise the stakes to be even more competitive and resilient. The work of these companies pushes national economies towards the advanced sustainability frontiers. With regard to the circular economy and resource efficiency, for example, Eurostat data show that Italy is the European country with the highest with the highest recycling rate on all waste: 79%, twice the European average (only 39%) and surpassing large European countries such as France (56%), the United Kingdom (50%) and Germany (43%).
Remaining focused on Italy, as the survey carried out by Symbola and Unioncamere pointed out, overall, the substitution of secondary matter in the local economy resulted in potential savings of 23 million tonnes of oil equivalent and 63 million tonnes of Co2. These are values equivalent to 14.6% of domestic energy demand and 14.8% of climate-changing emissions (2018). For every kilogram of resource consumed, therefore, to purchasing power parity Italy generates 3,6 euros of GDP, against an European average of 2,3 euros and values of 2,5 of Germany or 2,9 of France (while productivity is higher in the United Kingdom, EUR 3,9/kg, for reasons also linked to the less industrial economic structure). On the waste front, the production of the main EU countries amounts to 58.9 million tons per million euro, a figure close to that of Germany (59.5); Italy produces 42.3.
More generally, the circular economy is becoming mainstream and all sectors rely more heavily on recycled material, even in high-end productions (such as agglomerations of quartzite or furniture design), such as in the wood-furniture industry: the vast majority of chipboard panels are, in fact, produced in recycled wood. And precisely these topics will be discussed in two international fairs scheduled in the coming days in France and Italy. From 12 to 15 October, the Lyons trade exibition centre will host Pollutec, the meeting point for those working in the field of environmental technologies and services; France, in particular, represents the fourth world market for "eco-industries" after the United States, Japan and Germany, with over 7 thousand companies specialized in the sector. In the country there are important multinationals for waste treatment and water treatment, but also some thousands of smaller companies of which about 2 thousand are exporters; water and its treatment are the first component of the sector with 20 billion euros in turnover, followed by the waste recovery and processing sector, which has an annual turnover of about 8 billion euros.
In parallel, Ecomondo, scheduled from 26 to 29 October in Rimini, Italy, is the main exposure in the Euro-Mediterranean area on the most advanced and sustainable technological solutions for the proper management and exploitation of waste in all its types; the management and exploitation of polluted water, waste water and marine sites and compartments; the efficiency in the use and processing of raw and secondary materials and the use of renewable raw materials.
Emiliana Serbatoi, company leader in the field of tanks and storage system, dedicates to ecology sector an important catalogue area, proposing a product series made in compliance with ministerial standards, from containers for pollutants to tanks for oils storage. All these solutions can be discovered in the dedicated spaces of ES at Pollutec (stand G65, Hall 2) and at Ecomondo (stand 196, hall C5).