Surprise. Italy, the nation with the most robust recycling industry in Europe, imports 5.9 million tons of refuse a year as raw material (especially metals used by steel mills) to recycle. Meanwhile, it pays to export 450,000 tons of garbage (non-recyclable, real trash, like the kind that Naples can't seem to get rid of) to burn as high-priced combustibles in power plants that heat the homes of the Germans and the Dutch.

The data come from the latest edition of "An Italy That Recycles," a report issued by Fise Unire (a Confindustria association of waste management companies) and the Foundation for Sustainable Development.

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Fonte: Italy24