Plan to Reduce Waste approved by the Executive Board

The Regional Executive Board has approved the Plan for waste minimization, that is their reduction at the source. It is an important step for the planning of the waste integrated cycle, which was grounded in EU legislation and in the Regional Plan for urban waste management.

“Our Region is among the first in Italy to have developed such a plan, also providing the financial resources necessary to its actual realization”, declared Giovanni Romano, Regional Minister for the Environment.

The instrument aims – in the field of prevention policies – to avoid that the management system produces waste at the source, but only useful goods. “It is a fight against waste – he adds – from an ex ante point of view, that means without producing what is not necessary”.

The Plan provides for a series of specific actions, according to the material, to promote the re-use or the reduction of the production at the source. For example, as for the wet waste, the aim is to subtract the waste’s organic portion from disposal in the dump, both reducing the production of the organic waste at the source, and making the citizens aware of and feel responsible for a proper garbage disposal. The specific Action expects to reach the goal through the disbursement of subsidies to municipalities with less than 30,000 inhabitants to buy equipments for local composting or through the maximization of public canteens management. As for paper, the aim is to reduce the waste of paper in public offices and to make citizens more aware of a conscious use of resources.

Similar Actions deal with the reduction of packaging materials for solid and liquid food, incentivizing the distribution of unpackaged products and the reuse of containers.

“In general – Romano continued – we go from incentives to the use of reusable nappies, through the allocation of public funding for the purchase of washable nappies kits for the maternity wards of hospitals in Campania, for the subsequent delivery to the women who have just given birth, to the incentive to the use of drinkable water through subsidies for the realization of water kiosks. This is a programme to promote a lot of small everyday actions aimed at changing the citizens’ habits, counting on the emotional aspect and on the advantage deriving from spending less and less on useless packaging for which we all have to pay the additional elimination cost”.   

“A capillary work – Romano added – which fully responds to the new European laws; laws that not only aim at the separate collection of waste, but also at policies that encourage a drastic reduction in the production of waste. I like to underline – Romano continued – that the formulation of the Plan has been assigned to an Interdisciplinary Work Group within the administration, in order to exploit the Region’s resources and guarantee a rationalization of public expenditure”.

“The most important aspect concerns the financial resources invested by Regione Campania to realize the Plan: a good 30 million Euros are at the Municipalities’ disposal for actually realizing the reductive actions as delineated in the plan. Therefore, planning and actualization according to a model that combines the respect for the law and efficiency”, concludes the Regional Minister Romano.