Castellammare, €131 million waste management contract: Democrats and Progressives call for a halt to the bidding process.

In Castellammare di Stabia, the future of waste collection is once again at the center of political debate. The spotlight is once again on the SAD 2 Single Site project, which would consolidate the services of Castellammare and Torre Annunziata under a single management for an eight-year period, with a total estimated value of approximately €131 million.

The Democrats and Progressives are calling for the process to be suspended in its current form and for institutional and technical discussions to be reopened before the tender process begins. This request, according to the document released by the group, is motivated by the need to clarify a series of financial, organizational, and contractual aspects contained in the project documentation.

Comparison with the current tender

The starting point indicated by the Democrats and Progressives is the current service, awarded in 2023 for approximately €53 million over five years. According to the group, before making a new multi-year commitment, it would be necessary to verify the results achieved by the current management, through reports from the director of enforcement, complaint reports, any penalties, responses from the manager, and official data on waste sorting and service quality.

Particular attention is also being paid to the construction of the operational and legal headquarters in Castellammare.

According to the document's observations, the new project would result in an increased cost for the municipality and its residents of approximately €2 million over five years, rising to over €3 million over eight years. The group claims this would offset—and reduce—some services and staffing expected for Castellammare.

Less staff and fewer resources?

The sizing of resources is one of the most contested aspects.

The Single Construction Site project calls for a total of 204 workers and 96 vehicles for the two municipalities. This figure, according to the Democrats and Progressives, deserves further investigation, especially since Castellammare currently has 110 vehicles in service, while the new plan calls for a total of 96 for both municipalities.

According to the technical note attached to the press release, some inconsistencies regarding personnel also emerge, which need to be clarified.

The project indicates 204 workers, but the same documentation describes approximately 170 units in the morning shift, 25 in the afternoon, and 25 reserve workers, arriving at an apparent total of 220. Hence the request for clarification whether the reserve workers are already included in the 204 employees and whether the counts refer to actual workers or full-time equivalent units.

The group also asks for verification of how holidays, rest, sick leave, accident insurance, emergency response, and all additional services, including collection centers, markets, beaches, and events, are guaranteed.

Savings under the microscope

Another chapter is that of the announced savings.

According to the Democrats and Progressives' statement, the documentation does not adequately document an annual saving of approximately €624 and a further saving of approximately €240 related to the reorganization of shifts in Torre Annunziata.

The request is therefore to publish detailed tables that allow for a comparison between joint management and the possibility of separate procurement, indicating the costs of personnel, equipment, facilities, seasonal services, systems, and shared expenses.

For the €240, in particular, the document calls for verifiable calculations of the eliminated night and overtime hours, the surcharges, the cost of the new afternoon shift, and the consequences for the quality and safety of the service.

Investments of almost eight million and Pef

Another issue raised concerns the Economic-Financial Plan.

The initial investments are estimated at approximately €7,99 million. However, according to the statement, the annual depreciation rate indicated in the documentation does not appear consistent with a linear depreciation of the entire investment and is reported with different amounts.

Hence the request to reconstruct in detail the investment plan, the useful life of the assets, the residual value, replacement investments, maintenance costs, and the ownership regime of the assets.

You are also asked to detail the IRR indicated at 34,3%, through a complete statement of cash flows, financial charges, taxes, working capital and CONAI revenues.

Penalties, guarantees and social clause

The findings also concern the contractual clauses.

The Democrats and Progressives are calling for a review of the provisions regarding penalties, cumulation of penalties, final guarantees, and forfeiture of guarantees in the event of excess staffing.

According to the note, the presence of additional staff does not in itself constitute proof of a breach or damage to the institution: any financial consequences, it is argued, must be linked to a specific violation, verified through cross-examination and proportionate to the damage.

The social clause is also listed among the aspects to be explored further, with the aim of protecting employment without automatically leading to the full absorption of departing staff.

The single lot issue

Finally, the focus of the discussion is the decision to consolidate the services of the two municipalities into a single lot.

For Democrats and Progressives, this choice should be accompanied by an analysis of the market, the effects on competition, and the possibility of business participation, as well as a comparison with possible territorial or functional alternatives.

Furthermore, the note also clarifies the availability of facilities, permits, collection centers, any public transport granted for use, additional services, and on-demand services, along with their prices and quantity limits.

The documents and the institutional path

The political request is therefore to reconstruct the entire process that led to the definition of SAD 2, verifying the initiatives undertaken in 2023, 2024 and 2025 by the Municipality, the ATO Napoli 3 and the EDA Napoli 3.

The group requests that the Industrial Plan, the Specifications, the Economic and Financial Planning Document, the alternative analyses, the resource sizing, and the tender schedule be made available.

The document also emphasizes that the failure of the entities involved to express a dissenting opinion cannot automatically be considered proof of conscious and definitive adherence to the Single Construction Site model: to establish this, the Democrats and Progressives argue, it is necessary to examine the documents and reconstruct the decision-making process.

The risks

The technical section attached to the press release finally lists the possible consequences of continuing the process without completing the checks and correcting the reported inconsistencies.

The scenarios indicated include possible challenges to the tender or specifications, precautionary suspension requests, potential disputes over the sustainability of the bids and the revision of the fee, higher costs for unquantified services or facilities, and difficulties in transitioning from the current operator to the new contractor.

The same note specifies, however, that these consequences are not automatic, but are indicated as risks related to the critical issues highlighted and the value of the contract. Any administrative or accounting liability, it is specified, could only be assessed if damage, attributable conduct, and a causal link were established.

The request: stop the process and reopen the discussion

The Democrats and Progressives' position is summarized in the request to suspend the process in its current form and reopen the institutional and technical debate.

The group clarifies that it does not wish to rule out the Single Construction Site model a priori, but requests that a tender of the indicated value be based on verifiable data, defined performance, correctly quantified costs, and adequate guarantees for municipalities, workers, and users.