TQRIF and technical quality updates
ARERA Resolution 374/2025/R/rif completes technical quality regulation (RQTR) and updates Resolution 15/2022/R/rif. Consult the text and subsequent measures relevant to your management area when setting up records and indicators, distinguishing TQRIF from other technical quality provisions.
Why ARERA regulates the waste service
Since 2018 the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (ARERA) has also had powers over the municipal waste cycle, granted by Law 205/2017. Since then the Authority has built a framework of rules covering three areas: how costs and tariffs are calculated, what information must be given to users and what level of quality service operators must guarantee.
For municipalities and operators this means measurable obligations, inspections and data to report. The TQRIF is the text with the greatest impact on daily work, because it covers help desks, toll-free numbers, collections, complaints and collection regularity.
What the TQRIF is
The TQRIF is the Consolidated Text on the regulation of municipal waste management service quality, Annex A to ARERA resolution 15/2022/R/rif. It has been in force since 1 January 2023 and applies to all services, with obligations that increase gradually according to the regulatory scheme.
The text distinguishes two families of obligations. Contractual quality concerns the relationship with users: requests, complaints, help desks, payments, on-call collections. Technical quality concerns service delivery: continuity, regularity, punctuality of collection and street cleaning, safety.
The four regulatory schemes
The competent local authority places each service in a matrix based on two questions: does the service contract already provide for contractual quality obligations? And for technical quality? If it provides for neither, the service is in scheme I; with contractual quality only, scheme II; with technical quality only, scheme III; with both, scheme IV.
Obligations and the minimum compliance percentages for the standards increase from scheme I to scheme IV.
Obligations increase from scheme I to scheme IV
- Scheme I: minimum obligations, with no general quality standards to meet.
- Scheme II: adds general standards on response times, collections and emergency response.
- Scheme III: broader obligations, with periodic container checks, punctuality indicators and higher compliance percentages.
- Scheme IV: the most complete level, with all contractual and technical quality obligations and the highest standards.
The main obligations for operators
Each service has a single quality charter stating the regulatory scheme, obligations, indicators and standards applied. Where there is more than one operator, the competent local authority merges them into a single text.
In schemes II, III and IV the general standards must be met in a minimum percentage of cases, which increases with the scheme. The most important deadlines are:
Activation, change and termination requests:
reply within 30 working days; delivery of equipment within 5 working days (10 if an inspection is needed).
Written complaints and written information requests:
reasoned reply within 30 working days.
Correction of billed amounts:
reply within 60 working days and refund of amounts not due within 120 working days.
On-call collection of bulky waste:
at least one free collection per month per user, up to 5 items; carried out within 15 working days.
Service faults:
intervention within 5 working days (10 with an inspection); repair or replacement of equipment within 10 working days (15 with an inspection).
Contact points:
a toll-free number in every scheme, an online help desk in schemes II, III and IV; in scheme IV the average telephone waiting time has a standard of 240 seconds.
Service continuity:
container mapping and a collection and street-cleaning schedule in every scheme; schemes III and IV measure service punctuality.
Safety:
a free 24-hour toll-free emergency number; in schemes II, III and IV arrival on site within 4 hours of the report.
Recording data and proving compliance with the standards
The TQRIF requires every service subject to a standard to be recorded: when the request arrived, when the reply was given or the intervention carried out, whether the deadline was met and, if not, why. This data is used for annual reporting and inspections.
In practice the critical point is having a single register fed by every channel: help desk, phone, email, app, WhatsApp and field crews. If each channel uses its own tool, reconstructing response times at year end becomes slow and unreliable.
Transparency (TITR) and tariffs (MTR-3)
The TITR, approved with resolution 444/2019/R/rif, sets out what information the operator and the municipality must publish on their website and include in billing documents: collection calendars and methods, collection centres, tariffs, contact details and how to file complaints. The TQRIF adds the obligation to publish the regulatory scheme and the standards applied.
The waste tariff method defines how the service costs recognised in the tariff are calculated. For 2026-2029 the MTR-3 applies (resolution 397/2025/R/rif), which strengthens the link between tariffs and service quality indicators. This is another reason why measuring quality accurately has a direct effect on the accounts.
