Italy, a country notoriously poor in raw materials, has long since taken the road to recycling, reaching levels of excellence in some fields. This is the case of paper and cardboard, whose recycling rate with regard to packaging made of this material reached 92.3 percent in 2023. A value that is already higher than the European Union's albeit ambitious 2030 target: 85%. According to data contained in the most recent report by Comieco, the National Consortium for the Recovery and Recycling of Cellulose-based Packaging, the separate collection of paper has reached 3.7 million tons, with a contribution per citizen of 64 kilograms, the new all-time record. At the level of individual regions, the best performance was put up by Emilia Romagna (93 kilograms per inhabitant). Peaks of excellence were also recorded in the Center with Tuscany's 90 kilograms, while the best performance in the South was Sardinia (61 kilograms). "Among large cities," reads Comieco's annual report, "a special mention deserves Rome, which grew by 3,600 tons (+1.5%) but still has an estimated collection potential of 80,000 tons/year.