Waste collection and street sweeping: innovations for more liveable and cleaner cities

At Ecomondo 2025, the circular economy event scheduled to be held in Rimini from 4 to 7 November, the new edition of Sal.Ve, the Vehicle Exhibition for Ecology, organised in partnership with ANFIA – Associazione Nazionale Filiera Industria Automobilistica (National Association of the Automotive Industry), is back. The event, which will be held in pavilions A7/C7 in the west wing of the exhibition centre, will offer the opportunity to discover the entire range of production of fittings for industrial and special vehicles designed for solid and liquid waste collection, road sweeping and drainage, a manufacturing niche that is a true Italian excellence.


Cleaner streets for more liveable cities  
One of the key drivers on which to focus for the environmental sustainability of our cities is the streamlining of waste collection, street sweeping and drainage services. These services are increasingly carried out with zero or low CO₂ emission vehicles, intelligent logistics and monitoring systems.
The sector currently offers vehicles capable of automatically hooking up and emptying bins, equipped with artificial vision systems and anti-collision sensors. Meanwhile, advanced autonomous driving technologies are being tested for overnight collection activities, supervised and coordinated by smart, connected operations centres.
Alongside this, the use of artificial intelligence now enables waste flow forecasts and optimisation of emptying frequency, through the analysis of historical data and weather conditions.
 

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Street sweeping is also more and more networked. By geolocalising the vehicles and sensors installed along the road network, it is possible to know where the operators are, which streets have already been cleaned and where new interventions are needed, as well as monitoring the occurrence of abandoned waste or critical situations along the pavements, in cooperation with the municipalities. 
At the same time, initiatives are growing that integrate public services with apps for citizens, who can report the presence of bulky waste, reserve access to ecological islands or receive notifications about collection days. 

A manufacturing excellence  
Within this context, where technological innovation and sustainability are combined, the 19 member companies of ANFIA's Ecological Services Vehicles Section are operating. They represent national manufacturing excellence: with a turnover of about 600 million euros and more than 1,600 direct employees, they account for more than 70% of the Italian equipment sector for the collection and transport of liquid and hazardous solid waste, purging and street sweeping.
Based on data provided by the association, around 1,000 vehicles for the transport of municipal solid waste were registered in Italy in 2024, with a negative variation of 15% on 2023; while in the first five months of 2025, according to the latest available survey, the drop was 7%. 
As far as the circulating fleet is concerned, on the other hand, in 2024 about 66,000 vehicles for waste treatment were on the road in Italy, including municipal solid waste compactors, vehicles with closed tipping containers, with openings on the upper or rear side only, for the transport of solid waste, vehicles for washing waste containers, vehicles equipped with sweepers and refuse collection vehicles. 
 

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Industry trends 
Compared to 2023, the year of the previous edition of Sal.Ve, a contraction in the sector can be estimated at around 15-20%, depending on the segment, with consequent pressure on prices.
Looking at the evolution of the sector, Marco Orecchia, President of ANFIA's Ecological Services Vehicles Section, highlights << the increasingly significant use of framework agreements by multi-utilities to take advantage of the combined effect of the rules of the Testo Unico (Consolidated Text) of procurement on price adjustments and the reference to the price index of the "Ateco 29.1 Manufacture of motor vehicles - Interior" sector. A trend that does not protect smaller suppliers, however, not least because the scenario is in fact predominantly influenced by the price choices of a single company >>.

Current trends also include a growing interest in foreign markets, including small and medium-sized companies, and a strong focus on both electric mobility and the adoption of digital devices to encourage the automation of operations and the continuous improvement of performance. 

<< The companies of the ANFIA Ecological Services Vehicles Section are constantly working to make their equipment and vehicles more and more high-performance, safe and eco-sustainable. In doing so, they are contributing effectively to the reduction of emissions linked to waste collection and street cleaning in our cities, through the use of advanced technological solutions and high-performance components >>, Marco Orecchia concludes.

Article written by Maria Carla Rota 

This blog is a joint project by Ecomondo and Renewable Matter