WE RETURN TO ECOMONDO FROM 7 TO 10 NOVEMBER 2023.

We at Italproget will once again be present with our exhibition space at Ecomondo, ready to present our turnkey plants for the separation of waste and materials.

Ecomondo – The Green Technology Expo, the reference event in Europe for technologies, services and industrial solutions that respect the green and circular economy, returns with its twenty-sixth edition from 7 to 10 November 2023, as always in the exhibition center of Rimini.

There will be four days of meetings, conferences and events, as well as opportunities for dialogue between industries, stakeholders, public bodies and all the players interested in environmental policy and the circular economy.

You can find us in pavilion A3, stand 071. We look forward to seeing you!

From Wednesday 19 to Friday 21 April 2023 in the spaces of SiciliaFiera in Catania ECOMED – PROGETTO COMFORT, the first green expo focused on the Mediterranean will be held.

We at Italproget will be present with our exhibition stand to present our turnkey systems for the separation of waste and materials. We look forward to seeing you at HALL C1, STAND 37.

Ecomed is an opportunity to meet the demand and supply of ideas and technologies capable of promoting sustainability and the circular economy system. Numerous national and international companies will have the opportunity to dialogue to promote the ecological, energy and digital transition, strengthening the existing connections between them and creating new ideas to improve the system and the quality of life of people.

Would you like to participate in the event? Below is your invitation to enter for free.

See you there!

ECOMONDO returns, from Tuesday 8 to Friday 11 November at the Rimini trade fair district!

Ecomondo is the reference event in Europe that, in a single platform, brings together all sectors of the circular economy, promoting the creation and development of a sustainable entrepreneurial system.

Also this year, we will be among the exhibitors to present our turnkey systems for the separation of waste and materials: we look forward to seeing you at HALL A3, STAND 071.

Don't miss it!

From 6 to 8 April we will be in Catania for the fourth edition of the Ecomed Fair, the first green expo of the Mediterranean created to offer a moment of encounter between demand and supply of ideas and technologies capable of promoting sustainability.

We will be available to present our turnkey and tailor-made systems for the selection and separation of materials and waste.

From 26 to 29 October we will participate once again in Ecomondo, the reference trade fair in Europe for industrial and technological innovation of the circular economy.

Italproget will be among the exhibitors: come and visit us in the Rimini trade fair district at HALL A3 STAND 071. We look forward to seeing you!

Innovative and technological urban spaces, but above all, cities designed to be sustainable.

The smart city is a city that manages resources intelligently and aims to become economically sustainable and energy self-sufficient, with particular attention to the quality of life and the needs of its citizens. It is therefore an urban area that knows how to keep up with innovations and the digital revolution, but also sustainable and attractive.

It is called smart precisely because the fulcrum is the high connectivity that embraces all areas, where objects and services exchange information with each other thanks to the Internet of Things. The term smart refers above all to a sustainable, efficient and innovative city, capable of guaranteeing a high quality of life to its citizens.

Therefore, it is here where large green spaces also come into play, a fluid traffic that allows one to practice sustainable mobility made of bike sharing, car sharing and hybrid or electric cars. Connected and integrated technological solutions and systems are put in place, dotting cities with sensors that generate a large amount of data, which can feed more advanced services and in real time, and allow administrations an increasingly efficient management in all sectors (public transport, energy management and distribution, waste management; maintenance and optimisation of public buildings, etc.).

The data today, to make way for the future

According to Eurostat statistics, today 75% of the European population lives in cities. This figure is expected to grow globally as well. According to United Nations reports, by 2050 70% of the global population will live in cities.

It is therefore obvious and necessary to move towards a more technological and sustainable urban approach. In Italy, to date, Trento is the city with the most sustainable infrastructures, followed by Turin, in second place, and Bologna, in third. This is what emerges from the fifth edition of EY's Smart City Index released in 2020: a surprise compared to the previous edition, which saw Milan in first place, followed by Turin and Bologna.

More time for us and our planet

The innovations and new technologies introduced in recent years in the areas of development, research and eco-sustainability call for a continuous improvement of urban situations, and it follows that any city can become smarter.

Climate change, the rapid growth of the urban population, the scarcity of energy and water resources, economic and technological changes are just some of the factors that in the useful decades have led the world's urban centres to face innumerable challenges. The objective of Smart Cities is precisely to respond to these challenges and take advantage of the opportunities offered by these changes by trying to create new projects and services to improve the lives of citizens, respecting the environment and future generations.

It is not just a matter of reducing waste to a minimum and giving new life to materials and products. The circular economy represents a much broader concept and involves very many actors. We talk about it with Marco Crociani, CEO of Italproget.

• Who is Marco Crociani for Italproget? And what is Italproget for Marco Crociani?

Working in Italproget since 2011, I arrived very young into a newborn company. We believed in a simple but effective project. We have combined skills with passion, determination and dedication to create a company that reflects our values, in the way we act towards our employees and continuing to our customers. I was fortunate to start my professional career alongside people with many years of experience in the sector and this allowed me in a short time to learn know-how, ideas and a search for improvement that never stops. Today I am one of the partners of Italproget and administrator of the company, our growth journey continues every day and is an integral part of our DNA.

• Can you explain to us what the circular economy is to you? Or what it is not!

The circular economy is not a linear economy, a system based on the typical “extract, produce, use and discard” scheme. The linear economy generates wealth by extracting raw materials, processing them, transforming them into products that end up in landfills or, in small part, in the recycling chain. The circular economy is a model of production and consumption that aims at "extending the life" of products, helping to reduce waste to a minimum. This is achieved through the sharing, reuse, repair and recycling of existing materials and products for as long as possible. In the circular economy model, once the product has finished its function, the materials of which it is composed must be reintroduced into the economic cycle and resume generating value. This allows the reduction of the extraction of materials, the use of non-renewable energies and the production of waste.

• Italproget is part of an industry extremely linked to these concepts. It is therefore easy to understand where your sensitivity to the subject comes from.

Italproget progetta e realizza soluzioni chiavi in mano e su misura per la separazione, la selezione e la cernita dei rifiuti. Siamo quindi fornitori di aziende che hanno quotidianamente a che fare con il riciclo. I nostri clienti sono infatti realtà che si occupano proprio della gestione e del recupero dei rifiuti da destinare al riutilizzo. Negli anni, abbiamo realizzato per loro impianti per la separazione delle plastiche, per la produzione di combustibile da rifiuti urbani e speciali, per valorizzare la frazione organica dei rifiuti, per limitare gli scarti da cartiera, ecc.
L’attività svolta dalla nostra filiera è importantissima e indispensabile all’interno del concetto di economia circolare. Ma la “fatica” della “vera” economia circolare non si ferma di certo qui.

• What do you mean by “true” circular economy?

Come ho detto, l’economia circolare è un modello di produzione e di consumo. La riuscita del sistema non è una responsabilità puntuale di una cerchia ristretta di attori, ma è condivisa da molti soggetti. La parola chiave è catena di valore. Tutti gli attori di una stessa catena di valore devono sedersi insieme e collaborare. Non solo i consumatori, non solo i produttori, non soltanto i nostri clienti gestori, non soltanto le amministrazioni.
L’economia circolare, inoltre, per funzionare deve “toccare” tutte le fasi di ogni prodotto che utilizziamo: progettazione, produzione, distribuzione, utilizzo, recupero/riciclo. Invece troppo spesso viene interpretata solo come efficiente gestione dei rifiuti, degli scarti, ma questa è una visione riduttiva.
Ad esempio: parliamo di recupero e riciclo ma poco di concept di costruzione dei prodotti; parliamo di recupero e riciclo ma occorre che la mentalità del consumatore si sposti dal passato e dalla modalità “usa e getta”. Non possiamo pensare di intervenire soltanto a posteriori recuperando ciò che nasce concepito per essere uno scarto.
Dobbiamo fare un salto di qualità, dai consumatori ai produttori, dalle aziende private alle amministrazioni pubbliche: dobbiamo iniziare a fare scelte strategiche sapendo che c’è un mondo fuori e che il “profitto” va generato considerando uno spettro più ampio del proprio orticello. L’economia circolare è infatti una sfida ma anche un’opportunità: di contribuire alla diminuzione di gas serra, di creare milioni di posti di lavoro, di aiutare le economie a risparmiare risorse e ad essere “indipendenti” nella produzione di materie prime.

• For packaging waste, the European target is to achieve a recycling rate of 65% by 2025. A further target is set for 2030: 70%. The target for the overall recycling rate of municipal waste is set at 55% in 2025. Additional targets are set for 2030 (60%) and 2035 (65%). Are these goals achievable for Italy? What direction do you think we should be going in to improve?

The "search for perfection" would make it possible to recover and allocate to a second life almost all the materials that can be transformed. I mean that technologies, cutting-edge solutions and automation are absolutely available to achieve quantitative and qualitative performance unthinkable until a few years ago, but they must be adopted on a larger scale. It should also be considered to allocate to energy production plants all that material suitable for being transformed into fuel and that cannot have a recovery. Only the residue of all the processing will have to be called waste and then the EU target of sending less than 10% of municipal waste to landfill will be ambitious but achievable.

Also this year we will be present in Catania from 14 to 16 July for the third edition of the Ecomed 2021 Trade Fair, the green expo of the Mediterranean that will host conferences, meetings and social activities dedicated to the care of the environment such as: Integrated Waste Cycle, Integrated Water Cycle, technologies for energy production, technological innovation and public services.

Thanks to the meeting and dialogue between professionals and operators in the sector, who share their virtuous experiences with cultural heritage, the Ecomed Trade Fair promotes innovative and technological solutions for the environment, opening the way to new emerging markets.