A General is also in the field to get Italy out of the nightmare of landfills. Giuseppe Vadala, senior officer of the Carabinieri, is the sole commissioner for landfills. Those that have now become a secure income for Brussels, given that since 2014 Italy paid fines of €280 million.
But just as the EU Commission examines the ambitious national PNRR with a green footprint, the Italian Parliament learns from the General that the situation could only become normal in 2024. Meanwhile, the commissioner has already been in office for four years. Up for now 81 scandal sites, 51 have been reclaimed or secured. For the remaining 30 it still takes three years.
General Vadalà presented his report on the state of Italian landfills according to a six-monthly deadline. A public deed that refers us to the first sanction of 2014 at a cost of 42,8 million euros every six months.
The fine was reduced today to 6.600.000 euros, but it will continue to be paid until the Union judges Italy finally in order. Will the single Commissioner succeed?
The work to be done is huge and often the administrative structures are not capable to do what we expect. The usual scenario: few resources, fewer employees, unnerving bureaucracy. The focus presented to Parliament - despite the intention to eliminate the sanction, resolve a thorny environmental problem and return territories to the community - still needs time. The synergies with the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the protocols signed with Regions and Territorial Bodies are defined as «choral». But bringing areas of the country to pre-pollution levels requires something more.
First, a greater responsibility of companies and producers in the management of processing cycles that generate waste. At the same time, invest in cutting-edge technologies and systems.
We know that they are essential structures for managing the waste cycle from its origin. Issue known and sterilized by ministers and governors opposing common sense. It is always current, as also highlighted by the sixth government since 2014 in the Rebirth Plan.
"Behind a reclamation there is the work of technicians, experts and administrators," explained Ilaria Fontana, undersecretary at the Ministry of Ecological Transition. People engaged in feasibility studies, planning and using the money made available. The projects that are taking shape finally aim at the regeneration of devastated territories. Draghi, Cingolani, Giovannini, Speranza want to put European money there to reorganize the environment and health from top to bottom. A plan to be supported which must make us forget three years of embarrassing intentions of the last two governments. They are the historic places of environmental initiatives, where the defaults of the State add up to widespread inconvenience.
Legambiente launched its umpteenth one a week ago campaign for rehabilitation and the right to health. An initiative with a broad perspective, not very ideological that underlines "rebound of skills and serious delays on the times established for the reclamations". Landfills that release toxic substances threaten the health of citizens. There is an urgent need to see the implementing Decrees of Law 132/2016 on the National System for the Protection of the Environment (SNPA) approved in order to have operational effectiveness and not hide behind other bureaucracy. It is the political decisions that favor the growth of an authentic circular economy in Italy as well. A virtuous economic system where there is no place for landfills but not even for those who are against recycling and recovery plants.
