Kumar E.S. (ed.) Integrated Waste Management. V.I

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Waste Management Facility Siting and Social Conflicts – the Case of Hungary

level radioactive waste repository (Vári, 2009). The power plant began geological research in

Boda in 1995 where the siltstone formation seemed to be suitable for placing high-level

radioactive waste into the ground. Although this research was stopped for three years for

political reasons in 2002 they were restarted and an underground laboratory was

constructed in the following years.

Parallel with the research in Boda, a temporary facility to store spent nuclear fuel was

established in Paks. It was another success story from the point of view of the Nuclear

Power Plant, as the repository could be constructed near the Plant. The case is discussed in

an earlier study by Vári (1996), in which she identifies the following factors as the pledge of

success: (1) learning acquired from the fiascos of the Ófalu case, acquisition of high-level

political support, (2) efficient PR activity, (3) shaky civil organisations on the opposite side,

(4) material interest of the residents of Paks in the operation and even expansion of the

power plant and (5) the population got accustomed to the proximity of the plant.

Boda is a small village with less than 500 inhabitants in a mountain region. In 1996 an

association was formed with other five surrounding municipalities. This association socially

controlled the research project, continuously informed the people and made decisions about

the funding that was received from the Paks power plant (Vári, 2009). The communication

had been intensive from the beginnings, a professional communication agency was assigned

to create and implement an effective communication campaign. They regularly issued

newspapers about the topic and they built an Information Office and Park in Boda.

Interestingly, the residents of Boda seem to have become immune to the series of new

communication efforts, and the issue of the high level radioactive waste repository has

become less and less interesting to the public.

7. Discussion

Anna Vári, one of the most renowned Hungarian representatives of research programmes

based on case studies devoted a decisive segment of her research activity to environmental

conflicts related to siting and to the investigation of the related risk perceptions. Her works

escorted the emblematic Hungarian environmental conflict cases, so to say: the scandals of

the construction of the M0 ring road around Budapest; the severe controversies of the

cyanide pollution conflicts in 2000, the open questions of the Ajka Power Plant investment

and the problems concerning the siting of nuclear waste originating from Paks. Rather than

providing a mere case description, the publications of Vári and her colleagues investigate

the case in its broader context and draw more general conclusions from its progress. Vári

identifies several reasons of the fiascos. Firstly, the objectives and the general plans have not

been made clear. Secondly, in several cases, lack of alternatives put things on a forced track

which was not acceptable for the stakeholders. It was observed on several occasions that the

public was excluded, that no trust existed, and this has often generated tension even among

the opponent civil organisations. The predominance of the technocratic approach (almighty

planning staff), and the inadequate handling of the compensation packages (e.g. to “buy”

the municipalities) has but intensified the opposition. Although foreign experts and PR

firms were hired to help with the siting decisions and to communicate them, their success

was at least dubious; in Vári’s opinion, the foreign instruments and results have not been

adapted to the Hungarian circumstances. These conclusions seem to apply not only to the

motorway construction projects but, in a broader sense, to Hungarian siting decisions

related to waste management facilities as well.

Risk communication has been a priority issue in Hungary, but there are different

approaches as to the best manner of this communication. After transition, the new

Integrated Waste Management – Volume I

governments wanted to promote authentic information provision on siting matters by

establishing the necessary legislative background, but it is often quite noticeable that this

legislation is not enforced. Investors often neglect to inform local inhabitants about the

potential drawbacks of the planned waste management facilities, and local people are

seldom invited into the decision making process. The most serious deficiency of the

communication policies was the predominance of one-sided communication. Despite every

effort to develop bilateral communication and to integrate some external opinions (for

example through a monitoring group in the Vác cement case), the companies rarely entered

in a real dialogue, and the two sides often missed each other’s points. It is not enough to

organise fora and discussions: people must believe that the companies will pay heed and

listen to their opinion. It takes two to have a dialogue – if one takes the initiative; the other

must at least be sufficiently open and receptive.

The fate of the envisaged facility was decided by local referendum in a major part of the

siting conflicts. This institution, if coupled with the right to veto, gives considerable power

to the local community – in such cases, the host settlement exercises the proprietary rights.

The body of representatives of the settlement, on the other hand, is bound only by the so-

called binding (“decisive”) local referenda, whereas a non-binding referendum will only

give orientation to the management of the settlement. Several referenda were held in

connection with the siting decisions discussed in the above case studies. A closer analysis of

the cases, however, reveals that a negative referendum decision does not necessarily mean

that the facility will not be built and, surprisingly, the inverse may also happen: the

predominance of “yes” votes does not always lead to the installation of the facility. In

Királyszentistván, although the siting of the regional waste repository was rejected twice

(once at a public hearing and later on at a referendum), the disputed facility could in the end

be built, since the locals voted “yes” on the third occasion. Note, however, that local

referenda are often invalid, because less than half of the population goes to the polls. In such

cases the decision-making right is usually transferred to the body of representatives.

In Hungary, most line policy issues acquire a very strong political connotation, and

environmental issues are no exception. The siting decisions and the related social conflicts

often have a political dimension (cf. the siting conflicts concerning the waste battery

recycling plants (Szántó, 2010)). Politicians are important actors of social conflicts generated

by siting decisions: in Vác for example, the Social Control Group was set up on the initiative

of the mayor.

No wonder that the protests against the siting decisions are often espoused by the

opposition parties, which obviously expect to gain political advantages thereby. Those in

office ever usually support the investors in the hope that job creation and the growing tax

and other revenues will strengthen their position in the management of the settlement and

bring them extra votes at the subsequent elections. The central administration is usually also

interested in the realisation of the siting decisions because, as in the case of the local

managers, a successful investment may generate political capital for them. It would be

exaggerated and an oversimplification to say that the siting cases are political games pure

and simple, aimed at the acquisition of political power, but the attitude and behaviour of the

government and the opposition politicians, respectively, in relation to the cement factories

clearly diverge in line with their respective political orientations. Both parties must take this

– the forceful intervention of politics in the siting conflicts – into account, as well as the fact

that some will try to exploit the possibilities inherent in the roles played by the politicians.

The entry of party politics in the siting cases is, of course, not a surprising phenomenon, and

certainly not a specific Hungarian feature. It is, however, worth separating the party

Waste Management Facility Siting and Social Conflicts – the Case of Hungary

political skirmishes from the political processes in the broader sense which shape the life of

a settlement. The appearance of a new facility in a settlement may be a decisive affair, so it is

quite understandable that it is part of the public discourse there and the various interest

groups express their positions concerning the issue. It is a problem, on the other hand, if

politics dominates these cases and drives the disputes into a party policy channel, because

that makes it impossible to develop an open dialogue between the actors.

8. Conclusion

This chapter dealt with the development of the social conflicts around waste management

facility siting in the last two decades of Hungary through case study research. It analyzed

the most important cases of the last twenty years and explored what were the causes and

implications of these social conflicts. Research methodologies based on case studies are

especially popular in the area of siting decisions laden with environmental conflicts, not

only in Hungary, but also in many other parts of the world where such research is carried

out. This is no accident. In these cases there are many viewpoints, and many actors with

different motives, which often provoke serious social conflicts.

The above review of the most important Hungarian case studies warrants the conclusion

that the main roots of the research of siting conflicts are sociological ones. In Hungary, the

sociological approach seems to be the most relevant of all the main trends manifesting

themselves in the international technical literature. Almost every researcher states the

domestic siting decisions cannot be discussed without speaking of the role of the social and

political impacts. Let us risk the statement that this is a typical Central and Eastern

European, rather than specifically Hungarian, phenomenon. The fact that transition and the

surge in environmental conflicts occurred at the same historical moment anticipated the lead

role of the sociological approach beside the psychological and economic ones in the analyses

in these countries. The cases of the past years, on the other hand, highlight that community

information programmes, especially the ones deploying PR means, sometimes manage to

convince the locals that the given facility implies no special hazards to them. These

techniques, however, cannot replace the participative methodologies recommended to date

by most Western European and American researchers of the topic (Vári, 1997).

9. References

Faragó, K.; Vári, A. & Vecsenyi, J. (1989). Not in My Town: Conflicting Views on the Siting of a

Hazardous Waste Incinerator. Risk Analysis, Vol.9, No.4, (December 1989), pp. 463-

471, ISSN 1539-6924

Fleischer, T. (1993). Jaws on the Danube: Water Management, Regime Change and the

Movement Against the Middle Danube Hydroelectric Dam. International Journal of

Urban and Regional Research, Vol.17, No.3, (September 1993), pp. 429-443, ISSN

1468-2427

Hungarian Central Statistical Office [HCSO] (2010). A települések infrastrukturális

ellátottsága, Statisztikai tükör, Vol.4, No.114, (November 2010), pp. 1-5.

Juhász, J.; Vári, A. & Tölgyesi, J. (1993). Environmental Conflict and Political Change: Public

Perception on Low-level Radioactive Waste Management in Hungary, In.

Environment and Democratic Transition, Vari, A. & Tamas, P. (Eds.), 227-248, Kluwer

Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-0792323655, Dordrecht, The Netherlands

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Kasperson, R. E. (1986). Hazardous Waste Facility Siting: Community, Firm, and

Governmental Perspectives, In. Hazards: Technology and Fairness, White, R. M. (Ed.),

118-144, National Academies Press, ISBN 978-0309036443, Washington D. C., USA

Kiss, G. (2005). NIMBY vagy BANANA? Egy hulladékgazdálkodási beruházás társadalmi

megítélése, Conference on transition in Central-Europe, Győr, Hungary, December, 2005,

Available from

http://www.sze.hu/etk/_ko nferencia/publikacio/Net/eloadas_kiss_gabriella.doc

Kovács, J. & Sándor, Cs. (Eds., 2004): Közösségi részvétel a hulladékgazdálkodási

döntéshozatalban, Research Report, Available from

http://www.emla.hu/alapitvany/03-04/hulladek.pdf

Lesbirel, S. H. (2003). Markets, Transaction Costs and Institutions: Compensating for Nuclear

Risk in Japan, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol.38, No.1, (March 2003), pp. 5-

23, ISSN 1036-1146

Mitchell, R. C. & Carson, R. T. (1986). Property Rights, Protest, and the Siting of Hazardous

Waste Facilities, The American Economic Review, Vol.76, No.2, (May 1986), pp. 285-290,

ISSN 0002-8282

Pomázi, I. (2010). Transition towards sustainability: myth or reality in Central and Eastern

Europe, Hungarian Studies, Vol.24, No.1, pp. 99-126, (June 2010), ISSN 0236-6568

Popper, F. (1981). Siting LULUs, Planning, Vol.47, No.4, (April 1981), pp. 12-15, ISSN 0001-2610

Sjöberg, L. & Drottz-Sjöberg, B. (2001). Fairness, risk and risk tolerance in the siting of a nuclear

waste repository, Journal of Risk Research, Vol.4, No.1, (January 2001) pp. 75-101, ISSN

1366-9877

Szántó R. (2008). A telepítési konfliktusok mintázata az elmúlt évtizedben, Társadalomkutatás,

Vol.26, No.3, (September 2008), pp. 371-388, ISSN 0231-2522

Szántó, R. (2010). Environmental conflicts in Hungary – the case of the used battery

reprocessing plants, In. Risks Challenging Publics, Scientists and Governments, Menoni,

S. (Ed.), 259-266, CRC Press, ISBN 978-0415580724, London, UK

Szíjártó, Zs. (1999). Egy konfliktus etnográfiája: „laikusok” és „szakértők” vitája az ófalui

atomtemető kapcsán. Tabula, Vol.2, No.1, (May 1999), pp. 52-87, ISSN 1419-3310

Szirmai, V. (1999). A környezeti érdekek Magyarországon, Pallas Stúdió, ISBN 978-9639207165,

Budapest, Hungary

Swallow, S. K.; Opaluch, J. J. & Weaver, T. F. (1992). Siting Noxious Facilities: An Approach

That Integrates Technical, Economic, and Political Considerations, Land Economics,

Vol.68, No.3, (August 1992), pp. 283-301, ISSN 0023-7639

Vári, A.; Kemp, R. & Mumpower, J. L. (1991). Public Concerns about LLRW Facility Siting: A

Comparative Study, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, No.1, Vol.22, (March 1991),

pp. 83-102, ISSN 0022-0221

Vári, A. (1996). A paksi atomerőmű kiégett fűtőelemei átmeneti tárolójának telepítése.

Társadalomkutatás, Vol.14, No.1-2, pp. 20-31, ISSN 0231-2522

Vári, A. (1997): A környezeti döntésekben való társadalmi részvétel és konfliktuskezelés

fejlődése Magyarországon. In.

Társadalmi és területi folyamatok az 1990-es évek

Magyarországán, Kárpáti, Z. (Ed.), 273-295, MTA Társadalmi Konfliktusok

Kutatóközpontja, ISBN 963-8310-07-3, Budapest, Hungary

Vári, A. & Ferencz, Z. (2006). Fordulatok és kérdőjelek a radioaktív hulladékok hazai

kezelésében. Társadalomkutatás, Vol.24, No.4, (December 2006), pp. 469-492, ISSN

0231-2522

Vári, A. (2009). Tiszta atomenergia? L’Harmattan, ISBN 978-9632361772, Budapest, Hungary

Yin, R. K. (1994). Case Study Research Design & Methodology, Sage Publications, ISBN 978-

0761925538, London, UK

Planning the Management of Municipal Solid

Waste: The Case of Region

“Puglia (Apulia)” in Italy

Ludovico Spinosa

and Carmine Carella

Commissariat Env. Emerg. in Region Puglia (Apulia), Bari

Technical Director of MSW treatment plant, Massafra (Taranto)

Italy

1. Introduction

The management of wastes, in particular of municipal solid waste, in an economically and

environmentally acceptable manner is one of the most critical issues facing modern society,

mainly due to the increased difficulties in properly locating disposal works and complying

with even more stringent environmental quality requirements imposed by legislation.

In addition, in recent years the need to achieve sustainable strategies has become of greater

concern, also because some traditional disposal options, like landfilling, are progressively

restricted, and in some cases banned, by legislation, so the development of innovative

systems to maximize recovery of useful materials and/or energy in a sustainable way has

become necessary.

The sustainability concept is today widely used when speaking of the development of

human activities, especially in the environmental field. According to the original definition

of 1987 by the United Nations, which defined sustainable developments as those that “meet

present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”,

sustainability occurs when natural or renewable resources are consumed less than, or at

least equal to, nature’s ability to replenish them.

As shown in Figure 1, for achieving effective sustainability, three elements of fundamental

importance are strongly interconnected to one another and cannot be separately considered

(Adams, 2006). They are:

- the environmental element (environmentally robust, and supported by consistent and

applicable normative and legal requirements),

- the economic element (economically affordable, technologically feasible, operationally

viable),

- the social element (socially desirable, culturally acceptable, psychologically nurturing).

That's particularly true for Western European countries, due to land scarcity and population

density, but will also become in short time of major concern for Central and Eastern European

Countries that already joined the European Union (EU), or are preparing to do that.

From a general point of view, the waste management policy should be addressed to both the

development of management procedures able to reduce the waste mass production, and the

application of reuse options instead of simple disposal ones.

Integrated Waste Management – Volume I

Fig. 1. Interconnection of elements affecting sustainability (Adams, 2006)

In this chapter the criteria staying behind the definition of plans for municipal solid waste

management in the Region Puglia (Apulia), south-east of Italy, are discussed, together with

the treatment and disposal facilities of the first installation fulfilling the requirements of the

above mentioned plan.

2. Technical aspects

Main options for the management of municipal solid waste (from now on abbreviated as

MSW) include stabilisation, incineration and landfilling (Williams, 2005).

Stabilisation can occur in aerobic environment (stabilisation, composting) or in anaerobic

one (digestion).

Stabilisation and composting involve the aerobic degradation of biodegradable organic

waste which allows to obtain a stabilised product to be utilised, after maturation or curing,

for agricultural purposes. However, to obtain a compost of good quality, the organic (wet)

fraction of the waste requires separation from the other (dry) fraction; if the organic fraction

is not separately collected, but separation takes place in mechanical separation plants, then

the process can be used to obtain a stabilised wet fraction which can be usefully reused for

environmental restoration purposes or as a cover material in landfill operations.

Composting has the advantage of producing a safe and hygienic product which can be

easily stored, transported and used on times and sites different from those of production.

Therefore, the separate collection of the MSW wet fraction is a fundamental prerequisite for

a successful composting operation (Spinosa, 2007a).

The main operating variables affecting the process performance are the moisture content

(optimal 50-60%) and the carbon to nitrogen ratio (optimal 25-30), to avoid slow composting

(at high C/N ratios) or ammonia volatilization (at low C/N ratios).

Anaerobic digestion takes place in a closed reactor in the absence of free oxygen with the

production of gas (biogas), rich in methane, and of a solid residue that can be used for

agricultural purposes. The conditions are similar to those occurring in a landfill, but better

controlled. Also in this case, the separation of the wet fraction from the dry one is required

for good performances.

Incineration and other thermal processes, require that economics be carefully evaluated, but

could be a cost-effective solution in large urban areas, where the distance to landfill site

Planning the Management of Municipal Solid Waste:

The Case of Region “Puglia (Apulia)” in Italy

makes transportation prohibitively expensive, and when restrictions on landfilling are

imposed. Further, thermal processes can usefully deal with materials which do not meet

beneficial use requirements (Spinosa, 2007b).

Potential advantages of high temperature processes include reduction of volume and weight

of waste, destruction of toxic organic compounds, and potential recovery of energy.

Most important physical-chemical characteristics affecting thermal processes performance

are the dry matter and the volatile solids contents. Dry matter affects both fuel requirement

and exhaust gas production, while the volatile solids content is important because it affects

the calorific value, i.e. the monetary value of the material.

For above reasons, screening and stabilisation of unsorted MSW is a valid pre-treatment

process to obtain a combustible dry fraction with good calorific value.

An aspect that needs to be put in evidence regards the sequence of waste separation and

stabilisation processes. Separating the waste materials before stabilisation involves smaller

area or cell volumes because only the wet fraction is to be stabilised, but organic pollution of

the dry fraction could remain unacceptable for its subsequent handling. On the contrary, a

better separation is obtainable after stabilisation of the unsorted waste: higher treatment

volumes should be in this case required, but the overall performance of the treatment

system results generally higher.

Landfilling of municipal solid wastes is a well known and consolidated practice; it is a

convenient solution where enough space is locally available at reasonable disposal fees. A

landfill is also the necessary support to all others waste handling systems for the final

disposal of materials no more eligible to reutilization and during shutdown periods for

maintenance and/or emergency (Spinosa, 2005).

However, organic matter deposited in a landfill is not available for agricultural needs, but

the production of landfill gas (biogas) is allowed. Biogas, if not captured, considerably

contributes to the greenhouse effect, because it is mainly composed of methane, which is

about 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in terms of climate change effects.

Therefore, wastes must be subjected to treatment before landfilling, where treatment means

the physical, thermal, chemical or biological processes, including sorting, that change the

characteristics of the waste in order to reduce its volume or possible hazardous nature,

facilitate its handling and enhance recovery. In particular, landfill gas should be treated and

used to produce energy, other ways it must be flared.

Another aspect to be considered is that MSW is often handled by following routes different

from those of other organic wastes, mainly sewage sludge, each waste under the

responsibility of different authorities, with the consequence that specific technical problems

and considerable diseconomies arise. For this reason, integrated co-management systems for

waste handling, including such operations as composting, incineration and landfilling,

should be developed to allow optimisation of operating modalities and reduction of costs to

be obtained (Spinosa, 2008).

Composting is the typical process in which the different characteristics of solid wastes and

sewage sludge can be usefully integrated to obtain a final product of better quality, because

the relatively high solids content and the carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) of solid wastes can

counterbalance the low solids concentration and C/N ratio of sludge.

In co-incineration, sewage sludge drying can take place at expenses of the excess heat

recovered from solid waste combustion, but greater attention in designing and operating

furnaces and exhaust gas abatement systems is required.

Integrated Waste Management – Volume I

Finally, co-landfilling, if permitted by national regulations, allows a faster stabilisation, a

better leachate quality and a higher biogas production to be obtained, but the operating

modalities must be carefully planned due to scarce physical consistency of sludge.

3. Regulatory aspects

Italy is member of European Union since its establishment in 1957, so national legislation

must be issued in agreement and/or application of European Directives.

3.1 European

From the European Union (EU, Figure 2a) regulatory point of view, the Directive 91/156 on

wastes, also designated as the “Waste Basis Directive”, has been of outstanding significance,

as it is always to be observed even with the application of any other specific regulations.

This means that the particular requirements deriving from other Directives addressed to

particular waste groups additionally apply to general regulations deriving from above

Directive. In particular, liquid and solid wastes, and sludge must fulfil the requirements

imposed by specific normative, such as the:

- Directive 91/271/EEC on the treatment of urban wastewaters;

- Directive 86/278/EEC on sludge utilization in agriculture;

- Organic Farming Regulation 91/2092/EEC;

- Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC;

- Commission Decision 2001/688/EC for the ecolabel for soil improvers and growing

media;

- normative on incineration of waste (e.g. Directives 89/369, 94/67 and 00/76), when

applicable.

Further, to favour the material and energy recovery options instead of the simply disposal

ones, the Directive 99/31 introduced targets for the reduction of biodegradable municipal

waste to be landfilled as follows: reduction by 2006 to 75% of total biodegradable municipal

waste produced in 1995, reduction by 2009 to 50%, and reduction by 2016 to 35%.

However, above legislation has been primarily addressed to generally reduce the impact of

waste on the environment, while a limited attention has been given to the positive aspects of

biodegradable wastes (Marmo, 2002).

Within this framework, a crescent interest has been focused in recent years towards the

recovery aspects of biodegradable wastes, so that the development of a Biowaste Directive

has been undertaken aiming at promoting the biological treatment of wastes by

harmonising the national measures concerning their management.

General principles include, among others, the (i) prevention or reduction of biowaste

production and its contamination by pollutants, (ii) composting or anaerobic digestion of

separately collected biowaste that is not recycled into the original material, (iii)

mechanical/biological treatment of biowaste, and (iv) use of biowaste as a source for

generating energy.

Member States are requested to encourage home and on-site composting whenever there are

viable outlets for the resulting compost, and setting up of community composting schemes

as a way of involving the general public in the management of their own waste, reducing

transport of waste and increasing awareness in waste recycling practices.

However, this process has not yet been completed because subjected to the development of

a basis legislation on “soil protection”, that will then become the reference regulation for the

proposed new legislation on biodegradable waste.

Planning the Management of Municipal Solid Waste:

The Case of Region “Puglia (Apulia)” in Italy

Recently, a new Directive (98/2008/CE) has been issued to regulate recovery activities of

wastes, including their energy recovery within the general framework of sustainable

integrated management systems.

Further, to properly perform the utilization and disposal operations and correctly fulfil the

legal requirements, a fundamental role is played by the definition of standardized

procedures for the chemical, biological and physical/mechanical characterization of wastes,

and by setting up guidelines of good practice for their management. For this reason, the

European Committee for Standardization (CEN), which supports EU Commission in

Directives issuing, established, among others, Technical Committees whose scope is the

standardization of methods and procedures employed for characterisation of waste (TC292)

and sludge (TC308).

3.2 Italian

As told before, each EU Member Country has to develop its local legislation by adopting the

communitarian one, but has the possibility to introduce changes specific to local situation,

provided they are not in contrast with general requirements of EU normative.

In the case of Italy (Figure 2b), the legislation on wastes is now fundamentally based on the

recent Legislative Decree nr. 205, issued on December 2010, that, in application of the

European Directive 98/2008/CE, replaced the previous Legislative Decree nr. 152/2006.

With specific reference to MSW, Italian national legislation fundamentally gives the Regions

“planning” responsibilities, the Provinces “authorisation and control” ones, and the

Municipalities “service operations” duties.

In addition, decisions and/or determinations on specific aspects by other institutional

Bodies are necessary to obtain all the necessary permits or authorisations. This

fragmentation of competences has brought in some cases to administrative conflict between

different public Institutions, so in some Regions a Governmental Commissariat has been

established which takes upon himself all responsibilities, by-passing and replacing those of

most institutional Bodies.

This is the case of Region Puglia (Apulia), located in south-east of Italy (Figure 2c), where a

“Commissariat for waste emergency”, then more generally modified in “Commissariat for

environmental emergencies”, was established since 1997. The position of Commissary has

been almost always covered by the President of Region Puglia.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 2. Maps of EU (a), Italy (b), and Region Puglia (Apulia) (c)

Integrated Waste Management – Volume I

4. The solid waste management in Puglia

With the Commissary Decree nr. 296/2002, based on the Italian Legislative Decree 22/1997

that was at that time a comprehensive law regulating waste issued in compliance with

various EU directives, the “Regional Plan for Solid Waste Management“ was approved, and

then completed and adjourned by the Commissary Decree 187/2005. In previous Decrees,

issued on 1997 and 1998, Guidelines for the mechanical-biological treatment of residual

waste remaining after separation at source of selected fractions were introduced.

The Region Puglia has an extension of about 20,000 km

and a population of a little bit more

than 4 millions. The Region is characterised by a coast length of about 800 km, and a hill-

shaped profile, also including both vast flat areas and mountains (up to 1000 m) ones.

Administratively speaking, at the time of Plan issuing, the Region included 5 Provinces (i.e.

Bari - the Region’s Capital, Foggia, Brindisi, Lecce, and Taranto). A new Province, the BAT

(Barletta, Andria, and Trani) Province, has been established in 2004 and really started to

operate in 2009. This Province, which includes 10 towns originally part of northern Bari

Province and southern Foggia Province was obviously not included in 2002 planning, but

will be considered in the revised waste management Plan to be approved in 2011.

Basically, above mentioned Decrees (296/2002 and 187/2005) require the:

a. development of “source separation” schemes with the target for 2010 of 55% of MSW

separately collected to be handled for material recovery,

b. “biostabilization” of urban waste, remaining after source collection, followed by

separation of a treated wet fraction to be landfilled (abbreviated in RBD) or used for

environmental purposes (RBM), and of a dry fraction (FSC) to be used for the

production of refuse derived fuel (RDF).

Regarding the biostabilisation treatment, the following two options can be adopted:

4.1 Option 1

This option includes the following operations:

- Pretreatments, e.g. storage, moderate shredding by systems compatible with the

characteristics of organic materials, ferrous materials separation;

- Biostabilisation for an approx period of 2-4 weeks, depending on the technology

adopted, to obtain a material having a Dynamic Respirometric Index (DRI) of max 800

mg-O

/kg-VS

- Selection/Screening, at max 80 mm;

- Landfilling of the undersized fraction (RBD), at an amount not higher than 35% of the

untreated urban waste;

- Processing of the oversized fraction (FSC), amounting to about 40% of the untreated

urban waste, to produce refuse derived fuel (RDF).

4.2 Option 2

This option includes the following operations:

- Pretreatments, e.g. storage, moderate shredding by systems compatible with the

characteristics of organic materials, ferrous materials separation;

- Biostabilisation for an approx period of 2-4 weeks, depending on the technology

adopted, anyway to obtain a material having a Dynamic Respirometric Index (DRI) of

max 800 mg-O

/kg-VS

- 1

Selection/Screening, at max 80 mm;