Get rid of a legacy: get out of the group of Regions that keep landfills alive and remove any suspicion about management. An uphill road that can only be successfully traveled if you have the money. The Sicily Region, where garbage management costs are among the highest in Italy, has announced it has found 2,2 million euros to close old sites of Mazzarrà Sant'Andrea, near Messina, Camporeale and Bolognetta, in the province of Palermo. A positive announcement, with President Nello Musumeci and the Councilor for Energy and public utility services, Alberto Pierobon, explaining that they have found resources in the Regional Fund fed by special taxes precisely for waste in landfills.
In order not to expose itself to further criticism, with the Anti-Mafia Commission already at work for a few weeks, the Musumeci junta has signed an agreement with Ingv, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, and the Civil Engineering Department of Sapienza to put landfills safely. In the days when environmentalists were once again protesting the chronic delays and slow progression of waste separation, the census of landfills and areas at risk throughout Sicily was completed: 511 sites identified which also required the collaboration of municipal technicians from 250 municipalities. A work on the territory from which it emerged - they explain in Palermo - that before starting the planning of the reclamations some urgent interventions to remove health dangers must be done in a short time.
Sicilian waste that goes to landfills is still more than 70%, with an enormous waste of public resources and private companies to manage. Periodically the environmental associations call back the Region on the need to push on differentiated waste collection and to plan modern treatment plants. In other words, they see nothing that suggests a circular waste management system, particularly wet waste, with energy recovery. It seems that the orientation of the Region is to delegate to the private companies that manage the sites the decision to build or not the plants. A virtuous, controlled way, capable of producing energy for families and companies and revenues for the public coffers does not seem to be of interest.
In nine months, the European Union will ask the Regions to apply the Community rules on the treatment of all types of waste. The circular economy package does not contemplate exceptions and even a Region that wants to get rid of a heavy technical, environmental and political legacy will have to do more. If it is true that separate collection is now close to 40%, perhaps it is necessary to reflect more adequately on the regional waste plan. Sharing the best solutions with the city administrations, associations and the world of work in order not to be fined and to stay out of any rewards. The 2,2 million found in the regional budget these days are a good sign. On sealing sites, the air is made more breathable, but the breakthrough that the Region says it wants to achieve and which, among other things, must also convince an investigative commission is not guaranteed.
