Article published on 8th July 2011 on Italian newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano”by Luca Mercalli
All we ask why in Naples the waste is in the streets and why it seems impossible to solve the age-old emergency. As it is not possible to give trivial answers, I ask for help to a waste expert, Roberto Cavallo, president of the cooperative ERICA of Alba (North-West Italy), a quite young business of excellence in this field.
Mr. Cavallo, lets start with a local context, what happens in the capital of Campania?
The situation of Naples waste is made more complex than elsewhere by three abnormal conditions: high production per capita , low waste collection, but also the presence of organized crime, particularly in transport management. This situation, as highlighted in a study by the European Commission last December, not only have serious environmental repercussions, but it also causes a significant negative economic impact. This deficit is mainly due to direct causes, such as failure to recover the market value of materials (paper, glass, plastic, metals) and indirect causes such as the negative impact on tourism.
But at this point how can you move to find an effective solution?
Providing exit routes risks to be to an exercise of pure theory. Some positive notes allow us to foresee optimistic scenarios. The first ingredient is in the city of Naples itself, in fact, almost two hundred thousand Neapolitans for the past two years are served by a waste collection service at home that allows them to separate the two thirds, overpassing the 65% of recycling. The second ingredient is the people to whom the mayor De Magistris is entrusting , in particular the Councillor Tommaso Sodano, the confirmation of Daniele Fortini as CEO of ASIA and the nomination of Raphael Rossi as president of the municipal firm. The third ingredient is the increased sensitivity accompanied by as much desire for redemption of the Naples citizens where you can find evidences through the several blogs and websites.
But hthe years pass and the problem is not solved ...
Already in 2008 and January 2010 we faced the waste crisis in Naples. Among the proposals I made that time I would try to relaunch one: for a few months, all volunteers of the civil service, lets focus in Naples aided by volunteers from the civil protection and environmental voluntary, spread to all households containers and bags how the properly separate collection works. Meanwhile ASIA, in collaboration with other public companies united in Federambiente, carries the differentiated recovery materials to platforms indicated by CONAI and the Italian Composters Consortium, all under the supervision of Italian Government and the Judiciary power in order to exclude the Camorra from the waste cycle.
And if the other regions oppose to accommodate into their boundaries loads of waste from Campania?
Who would object to the transfer of already differentiated waste to the north, I remember how Naples landfills are full of dangerous waste coming also from the north; as an example I quote the 500,000 tons of hazardous toxic sludge resulting from the land reclamation of Acna of Cengio, between the provinces of Savona and Cuneo (north-west Italy), buried in the Pianura landfill.
In Italy remains the problem of the enormous amount of household waste that we produce: about 540 kg per capita per year, 1.5 kg of garbage per day. If we take away 30% of organic waste that could be readily composted in orchards, gardens and close plants, it remain almost four tons to be be differentiated and disposed for each of us. How to face this problem?
Indeed, the waste reduction and the concept, to whom I dedicated among other things, my latest book, Meno 100 chili (Less than 100 kilos), namely the waste prevention. There are dozens of daily actions that each of us can take to reduce itheir garbage amount ... It is the waste that does not exist. That it it not ncesessary to collect and transport or treat, and finally the waste that even the Camorra is not able to touch.
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