The waste emergency that hit Southern Italy in 2008 turned the spotlights on a Made in Italy waste processing plant industrial sector which has been paying for the lack of a uniform political guidelines and strategic decisions and bureaucratic and administrative obstacles in the past. However, it is able to offer the market innovative solutions for solid urban waste processing plants and equipment with incineration, recycling and energy recovery purposes. At the same time, the Italian sector industry offers special and harmful waste processing plants and plants for controlled dumps and multifunctional platforms.

In total, the segment posted 230 million Euro in income in 2007 with 9% in exports for 20 million as illustrated in the last trend report published by Anima, the Italian mechanical industry association. And, according to the Anima research department, this year should end with a growth in production (+13%) and stable exports around 20 million. The sector should thus benefit from the renewed political commitment to radically and immediately resolve the problems associated with solid urban and individual waste disposal using a strategic national plan. For this reason, we expect a increase in production in 2008, thanks to the increase in orders, and in employment, which should grow at rates over 10%.

There are not many sector players and these are usually large. The Made in Italy industry includes some leading players, like the Impregilo group which, thanks to the Fisia Babcock subsidiary, is the world's leading manufacturer of waste-to-energy facilities having installed over 500 incinerators throughout the world. And Fisia Babcock is currently involved in building additional structures, all located in highly environmentally sensitive countries such as Germany, Sweden and Norway.

Another Italian industry giant, Finmeccanica, is interested in the waste processing plant sector through its subsidiary Ansaldo Energia (soon to be listed on the market, expected in the first semester 2009 when markets will be able to reabsorb the current crisis). The Finmeccanica Group is developing innovative waste gasification technologies. “Gasification plants – Ansaldo Energia’s managing director Giuseppe Zampini recently explained – already rest on solid technological foundations, especially in Japan. We’re focusing on a series of improvements and innovations in the energy recovery field”.

And if Ansaldo Energia is in the R&D phase, its subsidiary, Ansaldo Nucleare, is clearly a step ahead: the company could be awarded a more than 140 million Euro contract by the end of 2008 to construct two solid and liquid nuclear waste processing plants in addition to a waste deposit plant in Northern Russia to treat submarine reactor waste.

While Ansaldo Nucleare is preparing to sell its technologies in Russia, Fincantieri has already launched on the local market. At the end of July 2008, the Italian group signed a 71 million Euro contract with Rosatom, the Russian atomic energy agency, for the construction of the first special tanker ship to transport radiation fuel and radioactive waste resulting from the decommissioning of Russian nuclear submarines. The ship of 1.700 tonnage, to be launched in spring 2011 in Northern Russia near the Kola peninsula military bases, will be 84 meters long. It will be built in the Fincantieri Ligurian shipyards and, as the company emphasises, will be equipped with the latest technology currently available on the market.