In recent years, the gaps between North and South regions of Italy generated in terms of per capita GDP, have further aggravated, an increase of the unemployment rate as a major consequence. Southern Italy suffers from an underdeveloped state of affairs, although the most extensive development and growth opportunities in this area are concentrated. The circular economy is the best strategy to be implemented for the revival of the economy, based on the reusability of products and materials and the regeneration (and resilience) of natural resources. In particular, this approach allows to create and maintain value in each passage of the economic system by eliminating the unwanted effects of the current linear system. The ports represent an intermodal crossroads of goods and resources, and are an ideal starting point for organizational models based on the concept of industrial symbiosis. Consequently, ports have access to: organic waste, bioenergy resources of the area, biomass from transit supply chains, energy from energy-intensive activities, the place suitable to trigger the vicious cycle of growth that the circular economy can give birth. In order to ensure that the port of Naples and so on the entire Meridional Italy is also being developed, it is important that there be integration with the world of innovation and research and the establishment of high added value activities in francs’ points.

This research paper ranks fourth among all the articles submitted for the “2017 Rassegna Economica Prize” in the Maritime Section. The authors are Ilaria De Benedictis e Mario Fordellone.

This paper is available only in the Italian version.