Mowing and pruning are henceforth excluded, even at the national level, from the waste regulation: the recently approved law decree in the Chamber simplifies the management of waste deriving from the maintenance of the green, which is now specified in a list of materials agricultural and forestry that can be reused through good cultivation practices, and solves a European infringement procedure.
The Chamber of Deputies has approved, with modifications, the bill "Provisions for the fulfillment of the obligations deriving from Italy's membership of the European Union - European Law 2018" which contains, among other things, provisions relating to the disposal of clippings and of pruning. The changes confirm the exclusion from the field of application of the discipline on waste from mowing and pruning deriving from the maintenance of urban greenery. Now the bill will be sent to the Senate for final approval.
Assofloro explains: "By interpreting the problems that the companies in the supply chain involved in urban green maintenance have in the field of plant waste management, the association has been working for a long time to simplify the norm, also with a view to environmental sustainability".
In Lombardy, in concert with the Carabinieri Command for the protection of the environment (formerly the Forestry Corps) of the Region, Assofloro reached an important agreement in 2017 to allow for the streamlining of the procedures for disposal and transport of the resulting plant materials, coming from mowing and pruning, both in the agricultural and horticultural sector, avoiding the companies to complete the form.
 "With the changes made through the Bill provisions for the fulfillment of the obligations deriving from Italy's membership of the European Union - European Law 2018, the residues of mowing and pruning deriving from the maintenance of urban greenery", says the president of Assofloro Nada Forbici “can be reused through other supply chains, excluding them from management as waste with the obligation of registration and traceability.
This of course provided that the material is a "non-polluted" material from other material and is used in agriculture or to produce energy, even outside the place of production, or by transferring it to third parties if the environment is not damaged and no in danger to health. This is valid regardless of whether the resulting material is produced by an agricultural company or an artisan company.
In the norm, specific reference is made to the public green areas of the municipalities, clearing the field of any reductive interpretation only to the results produced by the maintenance of private green areas ”.