RECEPTION OF EC DIRECTIVES PERTAINING TO WASTE (Advisory opinion)
PRESS RELEASE
The Italian Competition Authority examined the draft legislative decree approved by Government on September 20th, 1996, which takes up EC Directives pertaining to waste and is currently under discussion on behalf of the Parliamentary Environment Committee.
In particular, the Authority outlined the existence of certain restrictions on competition which are justified neither by the reception of EC Directives, nor by the pursuing of environmental protection goals.
Such restrictions concern the following aspects:
(a) the regionalization of the total urban solid waste market, also including the urban solid - and - hazardous - waste segment, whose collection and disposal need the identification of adequate interregional territories.
(b) the provision regarding the municipal monopoly over urban solid waste management also over urban-like waste collection and disposal. Indeed, each single municipality will be vested with the power to set out the operational scope of its own monopoly.
(c) the provision concerning both a monopoly over recyclable materials collection on the municipal territory, in favour of consumers, and the obligation to create consortia amongst packaging waste manufacturers. Such provisions can arise barriers to access dealing not only with the conduct of the activities subject to exclusive rights (collection on the public ground), but also the contiguous and free collection of recyclable wastes at private companies.
In fact, in a competitive context, the firms tied down with recycling obligations should be able to choose if they want to manage independently their own waste disposal systems, through special collection companies, or to join with other waste makers in order to benefit by likely range economies.