The authors analyse the extraordinary possibility of post-pandemic recovery, opened with the launch of the European programme Next Generation EU. An opportunity which, in order to be fully seized, must place the regulated sectors of the water service and the waste management at the centre of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, as ideal candidates to receive the required reforms and investments. As recognised by Utilitalia, the potential which can be activated is huge, but requires adequate support. Equally consistent, it is the decalogue of the lines of intervention, where it is necessary to act, for the relaunch of the sectors analysed, both on the infrastructural and on the legislative-regulatory side. In order for the recovery to be fully implemented, it is necessary to entrust the guidance to ARERA, as an institutional entity which has a consolidated expertise in the water service and in the waste cycle.
Keywords: Circular economy, investments, regulation, water, waste
Jel Code: Q5, Q56, L5, L95, Q53

Andrea Ballabio, Donato Berardi, Francesca Mazzarella, Maria Gerarda Mocella, Nicolò Valle, Water and waste in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan in "ECONOMIA PUBBLICA " 1/2021, pp. 77-103, DOI:10.3280/EP2021-001005