3. Move from Waste Collection to Circular Destination Management
Sardinia has a comparatively strong foundation in separate waste collection: in 2024, municipalities generated 731,075 tonnes of urban waste and separately collected 559,094 tonnes, corresponding to a regional separate-collection rate of 76.48%. The rate was essentially unchanged from 2023, indicating that the next challenge is not simply collection coverage, but reducing waste at source, managing seasonal peaks and increasing local circular value.[sardegnaambiente][portal.sardegnasira]
Problem
Tourism increases waste volumes precisely where infrastructure is most strained: coastal settlements, beaches, ports, marinas, accommodation clusters, restaurants and event locations. The effects are amplified during the high season, when the number of people present can far exceed the resident population used in routine service planning.
A high regional recycling rate is an important achievement, but it is not by itself proof of circularity. A destination can collect materials separately while still generating excessive waste, relying on single-use products, facing contamination in visitor-facing bins, transporting material long distances, or lacking systems for prevention, reuse and organic-waste valorisation.
Destination implication
Waste is both an environmental-management issue and a visitor-experience issue. Overflowing bins, littered coastal spaces, inconsistent sorting instructions, poorly serviced beaches and unmanaged event waste can undermine the quality and credibility of a destination.
The objective should therefore shift from “managing tourism waste” to preventing unnecessary material consumption and making the circular choice the easiest choice for visitors and businesses.
Proposed direction
Develop a Circular Tourism and Hospitality Programme for high-pressure destinations, linking municipal services, accommodation providers, food businesses, ports, beach operators, event organisers and visitor communication.
Priority measures should include:
- Seasonal waste-service plans that use visitor presence, not resident population alone, to anticipate demand.
- Consistent multilingual sorting guidance across accommodation, public space, beaches, marinas and transport nodes.
- Refillable-water infrastructure and reduced reliance on single-use plastic bottles.
- Reuse systems for food-service packaging, festivals, take-away outlets and beach concessions where operationally feasible.
- Procurement guidance for hotels, restaurants and public bodies that prioritises durable, reusable, repairable and recyclable products.
- Food-waste measurement and prevention programmes in hotels, resorts, catering and cruise-related services.
- Separate collection of organic waste in tourism-intensive areas, combined with viable treatment and recovery routes.
- Deposit-return or returnable-container pilots in geographically defined visitor areas.
- Beach, harbour and marine-litter prevention plans, including waste interception and responsible-disposal facilities.
- Public reporting of waste generated per guest-night and residual waste per equivalent inhabitant in priority destinations.
Evidence and opportunity
Tourism has a measurable effect on municipal-waste pressure. ISPRA’s tourism indicator reported 16.2 kg of waste per equivalent inhabitant in 2024, compared with 10.8 kg using the conventional equivalent-population calculation—illustrating how visitor presence can materially alter the waste burden faced by destinations.[indicatoriambientali.isprambiente]
Sardinia’s existing collection performance provides a practical platform for the next stage. In 2024, 24 coastal municipalities achieved at least 80% separate collection, while 11 were classified as “Rifiuti Free,” meaning they met both the separate-collection threshold and a low residual-waste benchmark. These municipalities can provide useful operational lessons, though performance must be assessed alongside visitor numbers, seasonal variation and waste generated per guest-night.[legambientesardegna]
Relevant stakeholders
Regional Department for Environmental Protection; ARPAS; municipalities and waste-management authorities; accommodation providers; restaurant and catering associations; beach-concession operators; marina and port managers; event organisers; retailers; producer-responsibility schemes; protected-area authorities; tourism organisations; community groups and environmental NGOs.
Possible indicators
| Indicator | Suggested measurement |
|---|---|
| Visitor-adjusted waste | Total municipal waste and residual waste per equivalent inhabitant, by month |
| Accommodation performance | Total waste, residual waste, food waste and separate collection per guest-night |
| Prevention | Number and share of businesses using refill, reuse or returnable-packaging systems |
| Food waste | Kilograms of avoidable food waste per cover, meal or guest-night |
| Seasonal service quality | Missed collections, overflow incidents, litter complaints and response times |
| Marine and beach pressure | Waste collected from beaches, harbours and marine-litter interception points |
| Circular procurement | Share of tourism-related public procurement meeting reuse and waste-prevention criteria |
| Visitor participation | Contamination rates in visitor-facing collection systems and awareness results |
Delivery horizon
Immediate to medium term. Begin with pilots in a small number of high-footfall coastal municipalities, resort zones, islands, ports and protected areas. Establish a shared measurement framework before scaling successful systems region-wide.