Interview with Antonio Casotto, CEO
Dear Mr. Casotto, why did you decide to participate in seeSUSTAINtec?
I decided to participate in seeSUSTAINtec 2020 to find new partnerships in the waste sector with Bulgarian plants and plants in South-eastern Europe (in particular waste-to-energy and cement plants, or plants recovering plastics and other materials) in order to strengthen our transboundary sector and find innovative solutions for the recovery of different waste typologies.
Moreover, I would like to export our know-how and our extensive experience in the waste management sector, for the design and consultancy of systems/plants for the treatment/recovery of hazardous and non-hazardous waste.
What solutions / novelties will you present?
We would like to promote our know-how. ELITE Ambiente srl has over 30 years of expertise in waste management - collection, transport, disposal, environmental recovery activities. The company treats more than 300 types of waste. It also provides environment clean-up, remedial & recultivation services.
Tell us more about the benefits of implementing these solutions in practice and which areas do they apply in?
The benefits of these partnerships would lead to further development of the waste sector in the Balkan area, both in terms of technology and turnover, always directing local plants more towards the virtuous principles of circular economy.
Do you have any partners / clients in SE Europe? Can you mention some of them?
South-eastern Europe is a relatively new market for us, where we have already started laying some foundation for the creation of interesting partnerships. This area has a lot of development potential in the waste treatment and recovery sector.
What do we need to change to achieve more sustainability?
I think that the first thing to change is the public opinion towards the waste management sector. Unfortunately, even today, the public opinion has a conception of waste management, which presupposes a preconceived distrust, while it should be clear that we are talking about industrial processes that are focused on maximizing all resources into a logic of circular economy. From this conception derive difficulties of the professionals of the sector in promoting innovative solutions for waste management, whose real objective is to try pushing the recovery of materials and energy towards new goals, reducing the waste of resources and in this sense improving environmental sustainability.

