Published: Saturday, 05 August 2023 – Newsroom
ROME (news) – The debate continues
ilmamilio.it – press release
Yesterday 3 August, in a small room of the Regional Council headquarters, we met a delegation of the PD made up of the regional secretary Daniele Leodori, of the Roman provincial federation Rocco Mauliani, and of the city of Rome Enzo Foschi. It was the first occasion, strongly desired by us, to compare the respective positions on Rome’s waste management plan based on the construction of a mega-incinerator for unsorted waste. We were able to amply argue our firm opposition, for two types of reasons.
The first is the anachronism of a solution that goes against the current with respect to the European indications and directives which aim, instead, at maximizing the recycling and recovery of materials and at the transition towards the circular economy, essential for economic and environmental protection reasons and to protect people’s health and quality of life. It is no coincidence that Europe discourages the construction of new incinerators, which objectively hinder the activities aimed at transforming waste into a resource (recycling and recovery of materials) and are considered so harmful to the environment that they cannot take advantage of the funding from the PNRR (they do not comply with the “do no significant harm – DNSH” principle).
The second reason is the territorial context in which the plant would be located: in the center of the Roman countryside and in the presence of quality agricultural crops, in an area already compromised by the presence of a landfill and heavily polluted, which has been experiencing a crisis for some time hydrogeological area of vast dimensions, and in which the construction of an important residential settlement is even foreseen. Contradictions and absurdities of the Mayor/Commissioner Gualtieri’s proposal have been highlighted, in particular the idea that the incinerator can be built by 2026, and that with it the waste crisis in Rome can be solved: in reality, no less than 5-6 years, during which it is not clear what would be done with the waste produced; for us there is plenty of time to focus on quality differentiated waste collection, bringing it to adequate levels (70% and more), limiting contamination of the different fractions collected, and gradually reducing the quantity of unsorted waste; at the same time, so-called REMAT (MATERIAL RECOVERY) plants should be built, designed to recover further material from unsorted waste: in this way, the need for new incineration capacity would be eliminated. A new incinerator, therefore, is not needed; there is a different solution: less expensive and less harmful to the environment and citizens.
We concluded by forcefully asking that the PD listen to our arguments, critically review the positions taken, hopefully in a forthcoming close meeting with the presence of Gualtieri, also to heal the democratic vulnerability of the absolute deafness of the Mayor / Commissioner to the repeated requests for listening advanced by the many Mayors of the metropolitan area, showing a distorted idea of the concept of “metropolis”. The secretaries of the provincial and Roman federation, Rocco Mauliani and Enzo Foschi, first of all recognized the importance of the meeting, as the beginning of a phase of interlocution, absent up to now, which should have been started some time ago, primarily with the mayors of the Municipalities of the area. Mauliani said he was aware of the citizens’ requests, and proposes a comparison that could lead not to the cancellation of the program but to a reduction in the size of the plant (which will in any case compete according to Gualtieri’s times).
Naturally we have declared the unsustainability of this hypothesis, because for us there is a viable alternative that excludes the creation of a new incinerator, large or small; on the contrary, precisely for this reason it is essential to speed up the discussions with Gualtieri, before putting the project out to tender. Foschi, declaring himself in favor of the incinerator but also of the possibility of reviewing the project, undertook to report to the Mayor on what emerged in the meeting, and to propose that he participate in a new in-depth meeting to be organized shortly. We remain with this commitment, aware that more could not be expected and, even if the positions appear objectively opposed, we consider it important to continue a discussion on the merits.
2023-08-05 17:51:05
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