(by Marco Sperandio) "Palermo suffers daily also from citizens residing in areas adjacent to the City, both on the north side (Isola, Capaci, Carini Cinisi, Terrasini), and on the south side (Villabate, Porticello, Bagheria) and on the border with the territories of Monreale and Altofonte, a quantity of waste of any kind: urban, cumbersome, special and even dangerous, which can be a harbinger of a serious environmental emergency".
These are the words chosen by Leoluca Orlando, the current mayor of Palermo, who thus began a letter addressed to the administrations of the neighboring municipalities to ask for greater control over the problem of illicit waste abandonment.
The Sicilian capital itself is in fact the scene of numerous garbage fires, last of all that occurred last 22 July in Viale Resurrection, a symptom that the lack of awareness of the inhabitants mixed with the lack of proper management by the institutions make it, unfortunately, still a backward city from this point of view [2].
The conclusion of the letter, in this sense, is even more explicit and reads "In the light of what has been reported above, this Administration is asked to give maximum circulation to this communication and this in order to sensitize citizens to a rigorous compliance with the rules in disposal of waste, and the administrative and criminal penalties provided for in the event of violation of environmental provisions "[3]. It is therefore a clear signal of how we want to leverage the civic sense of the population to marginalize a problem which, in my opinion, should instead seek a solution in the administrative offices of the Municipalities and Regions.
If, in fact, there was a definitive concern to intervene with the construction of a network of territorial actors (institutions, companies and various organizations), a forward-looking, medium-long term planning could be carried out for each area, capable of tackling the management of waste flow, from their waste through the collection and treatment up to the final reconversion into energy or proper disposal.
While this virtuous network is being set up, however, all those companies that invest their resources on the sensitization of the population and on the provision of efficient waste systems able to generate a correct start-up of the process are good.
A virtuous case is provided by the Municipality of Perugia, where ten photovoltaic and computerized ecological islands have been installed for a few days, ie capable of being used by both domestic and non-domestic users through the health card of the tari user so as to allow the association of the conferment to the same and identify any possible offenses [4].
As well as another good incipit is provided by the councilor for the Environment Valentina Accardo, the municipal administration of Campobello di Mazara led by mayor Giuseppe Castiglione. This has in fact joined the software on smartphones, which, through the barcode reader, recognizes the product to be disposed by breaking it down into raw materials and indicating in a few seconds which container will be assigned according to the door-to-door collection system established by Common [5].
These are small steps towards a correct awareness of the municipal user, which however would lead to a correct start-up of the waste to the management system. This, in response, will have to be ready and equip themselves with companies capable of completing the flow by minimizing environmental impacts and transforming each territory into a self-sufficient area from the point of view of waste management.