169,000 users served, three municipal collection centres and an area characterised by high population density, historic districts, high urban pressure zones and highly diversified waste streams. It is in this complex context that GEMA SPA manages daily the waste collection in the Lotto Centre of Catania, tackling a challenge that requires organisation, control and the ability to read what is happening.
This is precisely where technology can make a difference. Here is where our solution K-Tarip suite provide daily support to the work of the concerned Etnean CCRs, leading them from an “analogue” approach to a data-driven model, thanks to the ability to act with precision on planning, communication and service improvement. We discussed this with Antonio Messina which told us about the GEMA experience, also in light of the new provisions introduced by the MASE Decree of 26 March 2026, which entered into force on 14 May last.
GEMA: the waste management challenge in Catania
To understand the value of digitalisation, it is necessary to start from operational reality.
GEMA operates in the Central Lot of Catania, serving 169,000 users, in an area where the management of waste sorting has to contend with very different needs between them. The high population density entails high flows of bins, wheeled containers and non-domestic waste deposits; the historic districts and the complexity of shared residential buildings make the placement of equipment more complicated; the areas affected by nightlife require an increase in sweeping and washing operations at the weekends.
To these critical issues are added the fight against the illegal dumping of waste, also managed through 40 cameras and photo traps, and the need to act quickly in the event of extraordinary occurrences, such as weather emergencies or phenomena linked to volcanic ash. Particular attention is also required from strategic non-domestic users, including catering, commerce, hospitals, the airport and markets.
Within this kind of operational framework, Collection Centres also play a fundamental role. GEMA manages three CCRs – Cairoli, Borgo Sanzio and Picanello – whose performance is now monitored within a broader system of indicators dedicated to service quality.
From collection point to data centre: monitoring to improve
It is precisely in the management of the CCRs that the introduction of K-Tarip suite, developed by Sikuel, has produced one of the most significant changes. “K-Tarip has triggered a very tangible change in the management of Catania's Waste Collection Centres Explain Fabrizio Patania – Director of GEMA UT Catania –, because it transformed the CCR from a simple drop-off zone into a measurable, trackable tool integrated into the logic of pay-as-you-throw pricing”.
The passage is important because it changes the very way the Recycling Centre is read. With the platform, every user access becomes a piece of information: who grants, what grants, how much grants and with what frequency.
These data can be used to improve multi-tier management. Knowledge of flows makes it possible to schedule activities on the basis of real data; the traceability of deposits helps to improve quality and user accountability; finally, knowledge of peak times allows shifts and resources to be adjusted according to actual needs.
The most significant change, according to GEMA, concerns precisely the ability to read user behaviour: “Today we know which materials are increasing, which are decreasing, which days are most critical, which users dispose of their waste correctly and which need greater awareness –state Ilaria La Mantia, GEMA Communication contact person.
Therefore, the data does not remain a simple reporting element, but becomes an operational tool for intervening in the service.
From an “analogue” management to a data-driven management, precisely.
“GEMA constantly monitors several KPI, starting from the percentage of recycling and the punctuality of collection, sweeping and washing services – goes into more detail Fabrizio Patania GEMA. To these are added the processed reports and their relative response times, the non-conformities detected (such as bins not put out correctly or incorrect assignments) and, of course, the performance of the three Recycling Centres in terms of flows and quality of the over 100,000 deliveries in the last six months alone. Monitoring also includes indicators related to urban amenity, with particular attention to street sweeping, litter bins and sensitive micro-areas. In short, it is a logic that leads to moving beyond the simple observation of the final result in order to focus on the processes that determine it: measure to understand, understand to act.
The direction of the new MASE decree
GEMA's experience is part of a transformation that today is finding further impetus also at a regulatory level.
The MASE Decree of 26 March 2026 It has in fact redefined the regulations governing Recycling Centres, introducing new provisions relating to their organisation, management and safety, and strengthening the role of digitalisation in monitoring waste deliveries. Furthermore, the new regulations recognise the importance of registering users, deliveries and waste fractions deposited within pay-as-you-throw measurement systems, strengthening the link between the management of Recycling Centres, data quality and the development of pay-as-you-throw pricing.
In this scenario, as the GEMA test case demonstrates, a platform like K-Tarip enables local authorities and operators to have a digital infrastructure already oriented towards traceability and the structured management of delivery data, supporting the adaptation of processes to new regulatory requirements (for further details on the regulatory updates, read our blog).
Looking to the future
The next step, according to GEMA, will be an increasingly greater integration between environmental service, technology and user behaviour“Ua transition that is not limited to improving collection, but aims to build an urban ecosystem capable of predicting, measuring and correcting in real time what happens in the local area”.
A vision in which every delivery, every access to the HWRCs, every non-compliance and every flow becomes useful information to modulate operations.
“ It is the same perspective that guides the development of our solutions – concludes he’Eng. Salvatore Petriglieri, Sales engineer Sikuel. Using technology not simply to digitise pre-existing procedures, but to build new data-driven management models, capable of making public services more efficient, measurable and sustainable.
Discover K-Tarip for Collection Centres
Management software and integrated hardware devices for access control, waste delivery tracking and Mass Balance preparation.
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