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Highlights • We partition Italian municipalities into homogeneous groups with similar features. • To form the groups, we use the drivers of separate waste collection. • The quality of local institutions emerges a key variable in this procedure. • Morphology, cultural consumption and the income also play a major role. • The municipalities of Veneto, Campania and Sardinia achieve remarkable results. Abstract The European Commission identifies separate waste collection as a primary factor in its sustainable development strategy. The EU Member States are expected to achieve a separate waste collection rate of 50% by 2020. Although Italy is not very far from such target, it features wide regional variation in the extent of separate collection. Municipal administrations are the key managerial units for the implementation of the environmental policy. By means of the Classification and Regression Tree Analysis, this work assembles Italian municipalities (NUTS-4) into homogenous groups, that share common characteristics with respect to geographic, economic and socio-cultural covariates. Three benchmark regions are identified, i.e. Veneto, Sardinia and much of Campania. The results achieved in these areas depend on the joint action of citizens and institutions and may inspire local-level waste management policies in other areas of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]