“The new EU will have to change pace: reclamation and waste are one of the major priority issues for the environment and health for the WHO, the EU and national agencies and therefore also for Isde. Around 35 thousand sites to be reclaimed in Italy, from Marghera to Livorno , from Gela to Priolo, from Taranto to Manfredonia, to give a few examples, over 340 thousand in Europe. But the estimates need to be updated, for the most part still to be characterized or with remediation to be planned, only a small part reclaimed in Italy over 300 thousand hectares (twice the size of the province of Milan). Millions of people are therefore exposed to various chemical-physical risks which have caused damage, some known and others to be studied”. The alarm was raised by Fabrizio Bianchi, environmental epidemiologist of the National Scientific Committee of the Italian Association of Doctors for the Environment (Isde), in his speech during the event promoted today by Isde Italia, on the occasion of the 23rd edition of the Giornate Italian environmental doctors, at the Office of the European Parliament in Italy in Rome.
Waste represents “a problem rather than a resource due to non-compliance with the 5Rs, i.e. reduction, reuse, recycling, recovery, separate collection – underlines Bianchi, former research director of the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the Cnr, professor in charge of Sant’Anna Pisa and UniPisa – and the EU pyramid on treatment (landfills banned but still widely used, extensive incineration)”.
Criminal and criminal activities of increasing danger thrive on land reclamation and waste, which is not only of judicial relevance – the expert points out – New treatment plants are proposed and built despite not being able to close the cycle of the circular economy, but arguing the opposite only because the costs of impacts on the environment and health are not considered, or they are treated as negative externalities and despite the fact that in many areas where industrial plants are located the environmental and socio-health status is already critical”.
“The European regulatory system has evolved – recalls Bianchi – Last May 20th the EU directive on waste trafficking came into force, although it can be improved, but it is on the control of its compliance by the Member States and on active policies that greater effort is needed Laws, regulations and recommendations find insufficient adherence and application for reasons of interests which, when hidden, must be brought to light, and for government distortions, distorted by risk-benefit assessments carried out inappropriately and at the wrong times, as well as by a weak culture of planning: reclamation costs too much, I have to resolve the waste crisis now.”
The “close links between reclamation and waste” with “the climate crisis are underestimated – continues the expert – and there is a need to bring them to light. The environmental and health impacts must be assessed by considering different scenarios, even alternatives to those pre-decided: there is an attack on impact assessments (Via/Vis, Vas) that requires maximum attention”.
And on the costs of reclamation, Bianchi has no doubts: “Reclamation costs a lot, but this cost issue should be addressed in another way. We need to invest as if against hydrological instability, thinking of obtaining results in the long term, also in economic terms”. Finally, the appeal to the candidates for the next European elections: “We ask them for a change of pace on reclamation, it must be done and therefore European funding must be found”.
#Environment #Bianchi #Isde #pace #waste #Italy #thousand #sites #reclaimed
