With the conversion into law of Decree-Law No. 116/2025, the legislator has profoundly impacted waste regulations, introducing new environmental crimes and redefining the entire system of penalties in this area.
The regulatory intervention is the result of a clear need: to strengthen the protection of the environment and public health, to fight widespread illegality more effectively, and to make economic operators more accountable.
From the contravention model to the criminal model
Perhaps the most significant element of the reform is the elevation of numerous offences previously classified as minor violations (“contravvenzioni”) to the status of criminal offences (“delitti”). Littering, unauthorized waste management, illegal dumping, and illegal burning are now subject to a more severe punishment system, based on prison sentences and a scale of offenses linked to the danger or damage caused to the environment.
The objective is clear: to crack down more effectively on the most insidious conduct, to focus on special prevention, and to promote a culture of environmental compliance, especially in the business world. This logic also applies to the expansion of the predicate offenses of corporate liability under Legislative Decree 231/2001, which requires companies to update their organizational models and environmental control systems.
The first critical issues: proportionality and regulatory coordination
Alongside the positive aspects, however, the reform raises some systemic issues that deserve attention. In particular, the general increase in penalties risks creating imbalances in terms of proportionality: in some cases, dangerous conduct or formal violations related to the absence of authorizations end up being punished in a similar – if not more severe – manner than cases under the criminal code that involve actual environmental damage.
Added to this are problems of coordination with the ‘eco-crimes’ introduced into the Criminal Code in 2015. The partial overlap between the new offences in the Consolidated Environmental Act and the crimes of pollution or environmental disaster raises significant questions of interpretation, with the risk of duplication of penalties and apparent conflicts of laws that could affect the overall consistency of the system.
The impact on enforcement procedures and the deflationary system
Another critical issue concerns the effects of the reform on the procedures for the extinguishment of the offence provided for in Articles 318-bis et seq. of Legislative Decree 152/2006. 152/2006. The transformation of many contraventions into crimes significantly restricts the scope of application of these instruments, which over the years had played an important role in deflation and the timely restoration of the state of the places.
The risk is that of a tightening of the repressive system, which sacrifices collaborative and reparative mechanisms in favor of a more severe criminal response, not always calibrated to the actual offensiveness of the act.
Corporate liability and organizational prevention
In terms of corporate liability, the reform further strengthens the role of organizational models and environmental management systems. The extension of predicate offenses and the increasingly rigorous approach of case law on the subject of corporate “advantage” require companies to adopt a structured and substantial approach to environmental risk prevention.
This is not just a matter of formal adjustments, but of a comprehensive rethinking of processes, internal controls, and training, with a view to integrating criminal compliance, sustainability, and social responsibility.
Edited by the Criminal Law Team