Rome, waste emergency again. What is happening

Bins again filled to the point of becoming real mini landfills and a system, that of waste, which in Rome is once again collapsing. But what is going on? After the closure of the Malagrotta landfill, after the partial closure of the mechanical biological treatment plants of the undifferentiated, and in the absence of recycling plants, the Capital must periodically contract with the other Regions to send its waste to be disposed of. And now we are in the umpteenth phase of transition from one Region to another. In the meantime, not knowing where to take the waste, the frequency of collection decreases by turning between neighborhoods and town halls and the garbage remains on the trucks or on the street. To get out of this situation, and stop being dependent on agreements with the Regions or from abroad, Rome (which produces over 4 thousand tons of waste a day) would have to build a large part of its plants to be able to treat and dispose of a large part part of the waste on its territory. Chicco Testa: “All guilty” For Chicco Testa, president of Fise Assoambiente, yet another waste emergency in Rome “confirms two critical points, highlighted for some time. First, the lack of plants: there are hundreds of tons of waste that is unknown where to put and then they remain either in the deposits on the trucks or on the street. Second: the critical situation of the Ama of which this confused not to say amazing trade union agreement demonstrates the state of difficulty and crisis that has now lasted for years “and the fault” is of all: Region, Municipality and Ama. No one is innocent “. Responsibility, therefore, of the Region because “the regional plan is based on false premises – underlines Testa – the first, that the amount of waste will be reduced by 10% between now and 2025, which will not happen; the second, that separate collection you will go from 50 to 70% in 2025. These are false estimates that try to say that the plants that are needed in Rome are fewer than those that are really needed. For its part, “the municipality is unable to implement anything, or at least it has not succeeded to date, now we will see” and then there is the Ama, “a company without capacity and unable to react, on which to put back hand deeply. A company that cannot be reformed from the inside: Gualtieri will try and it will be yet another disillusionment. We need to change register, for example by competing for the sweeping of parts of the city at least to create some competition “. Legambiente: “Gualtieri must seriously put his hand to Ama” Legambiente also intervenes on the question of Ama and plants. “Gualtieri – says the national president Stefano Ciafani – must put his hand to the company: Ama is not able to implement European policies on the circular economy. He must seriously put his hand on the company, as no one has ever done in the last few years. 30 years, 20 years of which governed by the center left. Ama’s staff must have skills, and they don’t have many, the company must be efficient, effective and economical, and it is neither efficient, nor effective, nor economic. The time has come for Roman politics to take an interest in Ama’s real problems “. If Ama does not have the plants, it is because, according to Ciafani,” in the 1990s an unwritten pact with Cerroni, owner of the Malagrotta landfill, on the one hand guaranteed very low delivery prices (50 euros per ton) in the face of large quantities of waste to be taken to landfills (about 70-80% of Roman waste), on the other hand the condition was that Ama did not build the plants. the faults of the centrosin Istra in Rome, Raggi has others: it dismantled the anaerobic digestion projects to produce biomethane that Marino had set up and had Ama design two aerobic composting plants in the north-east of Rome. Gualtieri must now correct this double mistake: having the plants built by Ama and working hard by immediately asking the Lazio Region to authorize the anaerobic plants being evaluated. Then other plants must also be built because Rome has about 500 thousand tons of organic waste a year that could be intercepted with the differentiated “. The node of the plants As regards the plants, the node is authorizing. To build a plant, explains Chicco Testa , “construction times range from 18 to 24 months, three years in the case of very complex plants, but if it then takes seven to authorize them …”. And in the meantime, “we will always be in crisis, we must hope for good the heart of the other Regions or abroad “. Which plants are needed?” All: landfills, at least one other thermo-combustor in Lazio, and plants for the treatment of the wet fraction are needed. “The opportunity of the NRP In these weeks the terms of the call from the Mite to spend 1.5 billion euros of the PNRR on circular economy plants, 60% of which are destined for the center-south. “Gualtieri – says the president of Legambiente Ciafani – who knows the PNRR well, dev and push for Ama to present other projects using the resources of the NRP. In a year, maximum two years, the bins must be removed from the streets by pushing the differentiated waste at home, going back on the Rays decision. “Ecomafia 2021, Rome Capital of bad waste management According to the latest edition of the Legambiente Ecomafia dossier, Lazio has the worst data in the waste and illicit disposal cycle: 736 offenses related to waste disposal ascertained in 2020, 942 complaints, 36 arrests and 391 seizures. Data with which Lazio is in second position after the Campania for crimes in the waste cycle (it was in third place in the 2020 edition of the dossier). Among the provinces, that of Rome continues to be among the worst on waste, and if last year it was the third worst province, this year rises to second place overall with 418 offenses. Legambiente Lazio has mapped and reported the presence of about 1,000 landfills in the capital, to which are added reports of new landfills in the city and its hinte rland, especially in green areas. by Stefania Marignetti