The indicator quantifies the pressure of tourism on the urban waste management system in Italy. It currently represents a recognized proxy for the monitoring of Goal 12 of the 2030 Agenda (SDG 12.b.1). Since 2023, the methodology has been enriched by including not only the official overnight stays in accommodation establishments, but also stays in non-commercial lodgings (second homes, homes of friends or relatives) and same-day visits without overnight stay. The inclusion of these components allows for a more realistic and complete estimate of the equivalent tourist population and, therefore, of the amount of waste generated per equivalent inhabitant.

In 2023, the indicator reached 15.7 kg per equivalent inhabitant according to the new methodology, marking an increase of 53% compared to the value estimated with the traditional method (10.1 kg per equivalent inhabitant).

National municipal waste (MW) generation in 2023 amounts to approximately 29.3 million tonnes, marking a 0.7% increase (approximately +218,000 tonnes) compared to 2022.

As of 31 December 2024, the number of organisations listed in the EMAS register, net of cancellations and suspensions, totals 1,185. This figure confirms a recovery compared to 2018, showing an increase of 22.8%. The total number of new EMAS certificates issued to organisations/businesses is 2,357. The productive sectors with the highest participation are: Waste and Material Recovery, Energy, Building and Landscape Services, Specialised Construction Works, Public Administration, and Wholesale Trade. The leadership of the Central-Northern regions is reflected in regional measures supporting EMAS. The most active regions are Lombardy, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, and Lazio. Regarding EMAS registrations by organisation type, recent years show a generally stable situation with a balanced distribution among small, medium, and large enterprises.

In 2023, the preparation for re-use and recycling rate—calculated using Methodology 4 and excluding construction and demolition (C&D) waste from household sources—stood at 50.8%, thus exceeding the 50% target set for 2020.

Nel 2023, la percentuale di raccolta differenziata è pari al 66,6% della produzione nazionale (29,3 milioni di tonnellate) (+1,4 punti percentuali rispetto al 2022), mantenendosi al di sopra dell’obiettivo fissato dalla normativa per il 2012 (65%).

Tourism continues to be strategic for the Italian economy, yet its attractiveness depends on a healthy environment. The indicator quantifies the atmospheric emissions generated by road-based tourist travel in Italy. In 2023 the automobile remains the main source of every pollutant considered: 93.7 % of CO, 96.1 % of VOCs, 90.2 % of NOx, 86.2 % of PM₂.₅ and 93.4 % of CO₂. “Recreational” vehicles—motorhomes, caravans and vans—have their greatest impact on PM₂.₅ (11.9 %) and NOx (8.1 %). After the post-pandemic peak of 2022, total emissions fell in 2023 by roughly 11–18 % (depending on the pollutant) and remain below the pre-pandemic 2019 levels; however, this comparison may have been influenced by a methodological improvement.

In 2023, tourist flows at the borders continue to grow, with a total of 85.7 million foreign visitors, marking an increase of 14.7% compared to 2022. Transit across road borders is confirmed as the most used mode (49.4%), followed by airport transit (47.0%). Italians continue to prefer the car as the main means of transport for their journeys (69.5%), with a slight decrease compared to the previous year. However, train use remains marginal (11.2%), indicating a limited transition to more sustainable means of transport.

Systemic food wastage in the Italian food system amounts to 66% of the total food energy produced. There has been a 17% increase in food wastage compared to 2015, measured in kilocalories per person per day. This situation remains far from institutional targets of halving or significantly reducing food wastage by 2030.

Internal Material Consumption (IMC) measures the apparent consumption of material resources within an economy. It is the main indicator derived from material flow accounts, used to assess a country's resource Productivity as part of policies on natural resource use. In 2023, Italy's Internal Material Consumption amounted to 498.4 million tonnes (-2.7% compared to the previous year), and Resource Productivity stood at 3.59 EUR/kg (+3.7% compared to the previous year).

The indicator quantifies the extraction of natural resources - biomass, metallic minerals, non-metallic minerals, and fossil fuels - globally, due to the final consumption and investments of households, businesses, and public administrations in Italy. In 2023, Italy's material footprint amounted to 656.1 million tons, or 11.1 tons per capita.

The indicator measures the total quantity of special waste sent for recovery operations (R1-R12) as defined in Annex C of Legislative Decree 152/2006. In 2022, the amount of recovered special waste was significant, accounting for 73.3% of the total managed waste (176.6 million tons), with a continuously increasing trend (+13% in the last three years). The total quantity of recovered special waste amounts to 129.4 million tons, of which 4.2 million tons are hazardous. The region with the highest quantity of recovered special waste is Lombardy (28% of the total recovered), followed by Veneto (10.9%) and Emilia-Romagna (9.2%). 

The indicator monitors the impact of tourism on the territory in terms of both volume (arrivals) and the burden placed on the area (overnight stays). It highlights how some regions and autonomous provinces experience high "arrivals per inhabitant" and "overnight stays per inhabitant" ratios, such as Valle d'Aosta (10.9 and 30.0) and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (15.7 and 67.2), compared to the national average of 2.3 and 7.6, respectively. In 2023, all values increased and surpassed those recorded in 2019.

The data collected provide an overview of the educational and training provision on specialised environmental topics offered by the National Environmental Protection System (SNPA), which comprises the Regional and Provincial Environmental Protection Agencies (ARPA/APPA) and ISPRA. This provision includes both training courses and work-based learning pathways (such as curricular and extracurricular internships, as well as Pathways for Transversal Skills and Career Guidance – PCTO). In 2023, there was a slight increase in the number of environmental training courses activated within the SNPA (204), compared to the previous year. With regard to training methodologies, the trend noted in the previous year continued, with a renewed emphasis on in-person residential training, likely due to the reduced risk of Covid-19 transmission. Both PCTO programmes and internships saw further growth in 2023 compared to the previous survey. A total of 285 internships were activated, while 2,017 students participated in PCTO programmes during the 2022/2023 school year.

The indicator aims to provide a quantitative estimate of the contribution of tourists to daily potable water consumption.

In 2022, at the national level, the recorded tourist movement consumed 4 liters of potable water per capita equivalent per day.

Between 2015 and 2018-2020, a growth in consumption was recorded, increasing from 3.7 to 4 liters per capita equivalent, followed by a sharp drop in 2020, an anomaly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted global travel.

The circular material use rate measures the share of material resources reused by an economy. In the period 2004–2022, Italy's circular material use rate increased from 5.8% to 18.7%.