Closing the resource loop to generate value

  • For material and energy recovery
  • From linear to circular
  • The A2A Plan
  • An economic and social opportunity

For material and energy recovery

Our circular economy: transforming resources to generate new resources

Ours is a future-fit circular economy model: integrated and generative. From data centre heat to wastewater treatment sludge, we connect the entire resource cycle and transform what the system would otherwise dissipate into energy, materials, and heat for local areas.

From linear to circular

Why we need a new circular economy model

Demand for raw materials is rising, along with dependence on external strategic resources. In Italy, more than 4 million tonnes of municipal waste still end up in landfill every year. This is the structural limit of a linear model: what enters the system eventually exits as waste.

Only a circular model reverses this logic. Heat from a data centre feeds into a district heating network. Energy from non-recyclable waste returns to homes and businesses. Sludge from wastewater treatment plants recovers phosphorus.

To work at scale, this model must be integrated—connecting the entire resource cycle and allowing value to circulate between its parts—and generative: producing new resources from what the system already contains.

The A2A Plan

We operate across the entire resource cycle

Our challenge is to keep innovating for circularity. Today, we do this by integrating value chains that are usually kept separate:

  • waste treatment
  • water cycle
  • waste-to-energy (WTO)
  • district heating
  • biomethane
  • bioenergy
  • heat recovery

Our Strategic Plan to 2035 combines technological innovation and targeted investments to close the waste cycle and actively contribute to the ecological transition.

To address the national treatment gap

Italy must expand its treatment capacity to meet the 2035 European targets: from 51% to 65% recycling, from 19% to 25% energy recovery, and from 30% to less than 10% landfill.

Source: A2A Momentum – Strategic Plan Update, Sustainability Plan

To power the digital transition sustainably

We recover heat produced by data centres and industrial plants and feed it into district heating networks. In this way, we reduce emissions and gas consumption by making better use of the energy we already have.

To turn waste into clean energy

We enhance the non-recyclable fraction of waste by converting it into useful energy for the system. Our Waste-to-Energy (EfW) plants generate electricity and heat for cities, reducing reliance on landfill and lowering dependence on fossil fuels.

To close the water cycle

From abstraction to distribution, through to treatment and return to the environment: we invest to reduce network losses and improve infrastructure efficiency.

The digitalisation of the water service—through the progressive installation of next-generation meters and advanced monitoring systems—enables us to detect leakages, optimise flows and promote more responsible water use among citizens and businesses.
 

An economic and social opportunity

Giving back to people and places

When we integrate waste-to-energy (WTO) plants, district heating networks, wastewater treatment works and data centres into a single circular model, we create the conditions for local areas to develop new economic activity. Businesses gain access to recovered raw materials and locally sourced energy, while specialised skills and jobs linked to the transition can emerge.

Each element of the system generates opportunities that multiply through the others.