Meeting yesterday the 6th May, the CONAI Board of Directors elected Roberto De Santis for the office of President for the next three years 2014/2016. De Santis, full professor of chemical engineering at the Sapienza University of Rome, has held numerous offices of Chairman and President at important Italian companies operating in the chemical industry. The Board of Directors also appointed Angelo Tortorelli as Vice President, representing commercial users and distributors. In 2013 the CONAI system proved itself to be a critical player for both safeguarding the environment and due to its industrial chain spanning from collection, to treatment through to valuing packaging waste. According to preliminary data from 2013, consumption (which is strongly linked to economic dynamics and the uncertainty characterising the period) is in line with that recorded last year, reaching 11.4 million tonnes. The total recovery of steel, aluminium, paper, wood, plastic and glass packaging has grown by 1.3% since last year, reaching 76.7% of consumption, equal to 8.74 million tonnes of packaging recovered in comparison to the 11,392,000 tonnes consumed. Total recycling was at 66.5% of consumption, a slight increase on the previous year. The management of packaging waste in accordance with ANCI-CONAI (+3.3% compared with 2012) saw a steep rise, with a total of 3.37 million tonnes managed directly. The largest increase was recorded for the plastic chain (+10.9% compared with 2012), mostly due to the growth of volumes in the southern-central Italy. Over 7000 municipalities are served by the conventions, involving over 57 million citizens, equal to 90% of the population. The economic benefits of recycling materials managed by the CONAI system, in spite of the crisis and the contraction of consumption, continue to grow: in over 15 years about 1,100 new companies have been established to manage the packaging collection and selection phases; and 42,000 employees work in the sector, including those working in the recycling phase. It is estimated, that the effects of recycling packaging result in about 10 billion euros a year, about half of which is due to the consortium managed CONAI system.