Given the potential strategic implications on compost markets and related possibilities to propose similar provisions in other Member States, you may be interested to know, that after a technical inquiry Italy has finally listed - by means of a specific Decree - compost from separate collection among materials able to fulfill the mandatory targets of 30% "green procurement" for Public Bodies, i.e. the need to use recycled products at least for 30% of purchases (calculated on total expenditures).

Colleague and expert Enzo Favoino (Working Group on Composting and Integrated Waste Management Scuola Agraria del Parco di Monza) reports that the targets were established with Decree 203/03 on "green public procurement", which adopted concepts of the the EC Communication of June 2003 about IPP (remarking the importance to promote the GPP as a tool to foster recycling and put Public Procurement in line with environmental sustainability)

Targets so far were considered to be basically fulfillable through the use of recycled paper (already listed among recycled materials whose purchase was officially acknowledged by the Ministry as a contribution towards meeeting the obligation); given the high amounts of soil improvers and growing media needed in local management of parks and gardens by public bodies, anyway, compost will likely represent in the near future a major tool to meet the obligations.

The Decree, whose adoption by the Ministry was promoted by the Italian Composting Association CIC and Research Centres working in this sector, will arguably come as a further boost for the market of compost, which in Italy already amounts to more than 1 Mt end product (coming from 3 Mt separately collected organic waste).

Some Italian Regions are already funding farmers who use compost from separate colelction in order to provide for C sequestration, prevent leaching of N from mineral fertilisers, prevent erosion and desertification. Those subsidy schemes (already implemented in Piemonte and Emilia Romagna, about to be adopted in Campania, too) fall under the scope of the Rural Development Plans intended to promote practices for sustainable farming