“Waste Management” at the centre of Italian municipalities’ expenditure

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The historical expenditure of the municipalities in the Regions with ordinary statutes on waste management is 27% of the total spending in the seven basic functions. We have reconstructed which municipalities spend more than the standard expenditure or offer a service level higher than the average.

An effective waste management service is fundamental to guarantee citizens a good life quality and protect the environment. Differentiated waste collection through a door-to-door system and widespread waste disposal facilities allow correct waste disposal to fight pollution and better street cleaning to improve health and traffic circulation.

For these reasons, “waste management” is one of the seven basic municipal functions (administration, local police, education, roads and planning, social care, and nursery service) and is the most expensive. Sose estimated that this essential service amounts to 27% of current expenditure on basic functions. The service includes several directly or indirectly related activities, from collection to transport, from transformation to recycling and finally, the disposal of all solid urban waste and special waste similar to urban waste.

The standard expenditure needs for “waste management” determine the Tar/Taric tax.

Law 147/2013 establishes that the costs of this service must be financed entirely through the waste tax (Tari) paid by citizens. For this reason, the fiscal federalism system does not consider waste management in allocating equalization funds. In other words, the resources to perform this service come directly from citizens and not the equalization mechanism of the municipal solidarity fund.

Complying with the law above mentioned, from 2018, SOSE is responsible for defining each municipality's financial needs for waste management. Municipalities must consider standard expenditure needs to determine the Tari tax and, in general, the business plan (Italian acronym - Pef) for the waste management service.

The standard expenditure needs estimate municipalities' financial needs to provide basic services.

See "Expenditure needs"

From this indicator, we obtain the standard expenditure, the value in euros of the expense incurred by the municipality to provide a particular service, based on its demographic, morphological and socio-economic characteristics.

The standard expenditure for waste management

Sose defines municipalities' standard expenditure needs for waste management based on numerous variables summarized in 8 determinants affecting the costs of waste collection and management. The most significant determinants are the amount of waste produced, the differentiated waste collection rate and the municipal context (average age, level of education, population density, average income and number of inhabitants).

All eight determinants are estimated in euros per inhabitant, and the sum of these values gives back the per capita standard expenditure needs. The variables and all standard expenditure needs vary widely from one municipality to another, primarily due to the number of inhabitants.

The amount of waste produced is the most important determinant of the standard expenditure needs for waste management.

Determinants of the estimated standard expenditure needs for waste management in the Rso (2017) municipalities by the number of inhabitants.

SOURCE: openpolis elaboration on SOSE data (last updated on Monday 15 March 2021)

THINKS TO KNOW

The standard expenditure determinants measure for each municipality the weight of homogeneous groups of variables used to determine the total standard expenditure and that for each service. These indicators, therefore, highlight the municipality's characteristics that predominantly generate its standard expenditure needs.

The graph shows the RSO municipalities divided by the number of inhabitants, highlighting that the amount of waste produced most affects waste management. It is higher in large cities and lowers in small ones. This non-linear trend decreases from the municipalities with "Less than 500 inhabitants" up to those "Between 2,000 and 2,999 inhabitants" and then increases steadily.

€ 79.7 per capita is the standard expenditure in municipalities with less than 500 inhabitants based on the tons of waste produced. It exceeds the standard expenditure of municipalities with 10,000-19,999 residents (77.1 per capita).

The variables relating to other factors of the municipal context and, in general, the total per capita standard expenditure of other groups show the same trend.

€ 161.8 per capita is the standard expenditure for waste management in municipalities with less than 500 inhabitants. It is the fourth-highest value, surpassed only by cities exceeding 20,000 residents.

The explanation might be that small and large municipalities may encounter, for various reasons, particular difficulties in carrying out this function. On the one hand, small, sparsely inhabited municipalities must guarantee the service with a greater economic effort than other local authorities, often due to morphological characteristics that make the waste collection more

difficult (for example, mountain municipalities). On the other hand, the number of residents and the high population density generate a more significant amount of waste in larger cities. In addition, the implementation of measures such as door-to-door collection may be more complex and costly due to the extension of the territory.

The comparison with the historical expenditure

Sose defines each municipality’s standard expenditure needs for waste management, i.e., the resources that the institution should spend based on its characteristics to offer the service. It is interesting to compare this data with the historical expenditure, the actual expenditure incurred by municipal administrations.

€ 9 billion is the total historical expenditure on waste management of municipalities in the regions with ordinary statutes.

The figure represents 27% of the total historical expenditure of all RSO municipalities for the seven basic functions (approximately 33.5 billion euros).

52% of municipalities spend less than the standard expenditure on waste management.

Historical expenditure and standard expenditure on waste management in all RSO municipalities. (2017)

SOURCE: openpolis elaboration on SOSE data (last updated on Monday 15 March 2021)

Slightly more than half of the municipalities (52%) have a historical expenditure on waste management lower than the standard expenditure, compared to 48% that spend more than the expenditure estimated by Sose. This situation might depend on the particular nature of the function that, unlike the others, is paid directly by residents and non-residents who pay greater attention to the service provided. Municipal administrators, aware of this aspect, tend to reduce costs as much as possible, thus spending less than Sose estimate.

On average, municipalities in the northeast spend less than the standard on waste management, and those in the south spend more.

Then, observing the variations of the two expenditure indicators on the national territory, the municipalities of 6 regions, Piedmont, Liguria, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Puglia, record an average historical expenditure higher than the standard one on waste management. All the others spend less than the standard.

The expenditure level on waste management in RSO municipalities

Standard expenditure and historical expenditure on waste management in the municipalities of the regions with ordinary statutes (2017)

SOURCE: openpolis elaboration on SOSE data (last updated on Monday 15 March 2021)

DESCRIPTION

To find out the historical expenditure and the standard expenditure of your municipality, click on the Search... and write the name of your municipality. You can change the order of the table by clicking on the column header.

The performances of big cities

The historical and standard expenditures data do not give a complete picture of municipalities' efficiency in providing a service. It is necessary to analyse the level of spending with the service level, comparing the services guaranteed by the local administration with those offered by the municipalities with the same number of inhabitants.

No big city records a service level higher than 6 out of 10 for waste management

The expenditure and service levels for waste management in the 10 most populated Italian municipalities in RSOs (2017)

 

SOURCE: openpolis elaboration on SOSE data (last updated on Monday 15 March 2021)

THINKS TO KNOW:

  • The position of municipalities in the four quadrants depends on their level of expenditure and the number of services provided on a 1:10 scale
  • The municipalities in the lower right quadrant incur a historical expenditure higher than the standard one and provide fewer services than the average of municipalities with the same number of inhabitants.
  • The municipalities in the upper-right quadrant record a historical expenditure lower than the standard one and a higher service level than the average of municipalities with the number of inhabitants
  • The municipalities in the lower-left quadrant incur a historical expenditure lower than the standard one and provide fewer services than the average of municipalities with the same number of inhabitants.
  • The municipalities in the upper-right quadrant show a higher historical expenditure than the standard one and a higher service level than the average of municipalities with the same number of inhabitants.

The performance analysis in waste management highlights that the maximum score in the level of services obtained by large municipalities in RSOs is 6 out of 10, as in the case of Milan and Venice. All the other cities show a service level below the average of the municipalities with the same number of inhabitants.

Venice and Genoa have the highest expenditure levels.

Milan, therefore, confirms the best performance for this function, with the highest level of services and historical expenditure in line with the standard (5). On the other hand, Venice has an expenditure level of 10, followed by Genoa, with 8 and a level of services equal to 2, the lowest score like Naples. However, it should be emphasized that the territories of Venice and Genoa have morphological characteristics that make waste collection and management more complex, and therefore more expensive than in other municipalities. This might explain, at least in part, why they record a historical expenditure on waste management higher than the standard one, together