There were originally supposed to be eighteen composting plants, but the number will be fifteen, effectively canceling the planned expansion of the Salerno site. The processing facilities for the organic waste generated by the shredders in Santa Maria Capua Vetere and Pianodardine and in the municipality of Rocca D'Evandro, which were envisioned in a 2017 resolution, will not be built due to the local authorities' opposition to the new facilities. The Region clearly explains this in its July 3 Council resolution, acknowledging that "the local authorities have expressed their opposition to the construction of the composting plants within the shredders in Santa Maria Capua Vetere and Pianodardine, as well as the plant to be built in the municipality of Rocca D'Evandro," and the funding is being rescheduled.
But, despite the increase in spending planned for some interventions, there will be twenty-eight million available that will have to be allocated to new works in the coming months. Data and figures that probably pushed Governor De Luca to strengthen his powers in the waste sector, with the provisions included in the Simplification bill. Measures that made the Anci rise up: "The Municipalities of Campania have repeatedly taken charge of the problem, underlining, with this regional council, the willingness to accommodate the new plants related to the treatment of the organic fraction of waste in a framework of clarity and adequate guarantees. On the part of the Region, an initial generic willingness was followed by an evasive and elusive attitude. A substantial closure that has as its epilogue a punitive regulatory provision against the Municipalities, falsely indicated as those responsible for the delays, from which all decision-making power is taken away, conferred into the hands of the president and the regional council. The Anci Campania board considers this solution wrong because it expropriates the Municipalities of their functions. The mayors of Campania will fight against it in every venue".
To block the EU fine and avoid paying one hundred and twenty thousand euros a day, composting plants capable of transforming 745 thousand tons of organic waste from separate waste collection into fertilizer or soil are needed every year. In fact, Europe accuses us of not having an adequate supply of plants and of continuing to export garbage. But we are not alone: the Municipality of Rome and England follow suit, taking their waste around the world, filling the factories of half of Europe. So the tenders called by the companies of the five Metropolitan Cities are going deserted and prices are rising dramatically: in one year they have gone from 140 to 180 euros per ton.
The deputy mayor of Naples, Raffaele Del Giudice, explains it clearly. The Municipality has already contracted out the design of a composting site in the eco-district of eastern Naples. But there are those who oppose it and Del Giudice appeals to citizens: "I invite everyone not to listen to those committees, in truth very few in number, that oppose the construction of the plant in eastern Naples. We have chosen the path of separate waste collection, the only correct one from an environmental point of view, and for this we need new plants for the transformation of materials. These are plants that have no environmental impact". The Municipality of Naples is focusing on separate waste collection, which however currently amounts to around 36% of the total collection and therefore aims to build not one, but three plants. Then there is the rest of the region: a plant will be built in Tufino, where the works were supposed to cost three million, will cost more than seven. The estimated cost for the Cancello Arnone warehouse was fourteen million and has gone up to nineteen. The Municipality of Salerno has renounced five million to expand the existing site, which is currently on stand-by. In Marigliano it will not be possible to proceed because the times set by the CIPE cannot be respected given that the site remains cluttered with eco-bales and the intervention will have to be rescheduled.
“We must move forward decisively on composting plants. For waste separation we are approaching 60%, but we have critical issues in the city of Naples, this is the crisis point, in the rest of the region there are appreciable results even over 70%. In Naples the area for the composting plant must be identified, for the rest about fifteen municipalities have already given their availability: for half of them the Region will take charge of the planning, for the other half we are registering backtracking due to that process of ideologization of the problem that is out of this world. We must get to the executive planning, if necessary, the Region will make the tenders. The rule on simplification that we are approving this evening can also be useful in this sense. Otherwise in a year, the EU will ask us to build waste-to-energy plants and with our money”. Thus, the President of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca, spoke in the Regional Council as part of the discussion on the 2018 simplification law.
“We – explains the governor – have changed the regional waste plan, not for an ideological reason. The previous regional government had planned three waste-to-energy plants, I have no ideological preclusions towards these plants, but today they are unsustainable. Acerra was built because there was Cip6. Today the economic and financial plans do not hold up. The situation remains delicate because in the European negotiations they told us: explain to us how the new waste plan for Campania will be maintained if you say no to incinerators. For the eco-bales – he continues – we are moving forward, not with the hoped-for times, but if anyone has accelerated procedures, give them to us. The goal is to achieve the three guarantees requested by the EU: 60% separate waste collection, composting plants and emergency remediation. By the end of the year we will complete the remediation of the fifty landfills. We must complete the plan for the second screening, not the removal, of the eco-bales and the negotiations with Enel and the other parties”. “There was a waste emergency in Naples a few months ago,” De Luca concludes, “within 48 hours the news reached Brussels. We were negotiating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a reduction of the fine from one hundred and twenty thousand euros per day to Campania. After the news they decided to stop the negotiations. This is to make it clear what terrain we are moving on and how sensitive the problem is. I hope that the text of the law on Simplification will be approved by the entire regional council.”
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