The Italian Ministries of the Environment and of Industry have recently introduced legislation that provides incentives to local councils to improve their collection of waste glass for recycling, by offering a return on the costs involved in collection and processing. A decree of 27 Jan 2000 brings glass into line with other waste materials collected for recycling, for which local councils in Italy receive a subsidy, according to the quality of the material recovered. For waste glass with impurities of up to 3%, local councils will now receive a subsidy of ItL 0.60/kilo, while for waste glass with impurities of up to 5%, the subsidy will be ItL 0.30/kilo. Glass collected by local councils with a higher level of impurity than 5% may be rejected. The amount will be paid jointly by Italy's national glass consortium (Coreve) & packaging consortium (Conai).
