PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Italy generates some 32.5 million tonnes/yr of municipal solid waste (MSW), of which 45% goes to landfill, whilst some 11% is incinerated. If the country’s landfill sites incorporated the best available technologies (BAT), it could not only minimise the impact on soil and groundwater, but landfill waste could represent a source of energy if combined with biogas production. A similar argument applies to incineration plants, where adopting BAT could reduce atmospheric emissions and improve the efficiency of energy production. Local community support for such processes helps to ensure their success and Local Agenda 21 (LA 21) approaches promote this type of citizen involvement in environmental management initiatives.
OBJECTIVES
The key objective of the HIA21 project was to apply Health Impact Assessment (HIA) procedures to waste management systems. The aim was to integrate HIA with Local Agenda 21 (LA 21) initiatives to better enable citizens, particularly disadvantaged ones, to share in decision-making processes around the location, construction and operation of waste-handling plants, as well as waste reuse and recycling issues. The project aimed to identify examples of existing waste treatment plants in Italy, and apply a retrospective HIA – to be managed by LA 21 forums – at two different types of waste treatment plant: a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill site in Lanciano (the main landfill site in Abruzzo) and a MSW incinerator in Arezzo (Tuscany), which burns 40 000 tonnes/yr of waste and is expected to double its capacity in the near future.
RESULTS
The HIA21 project applied Health Impact Assessment (HIA) procedures to Local Agenda 21 (LA 21) practices, to provide a decision-support tool for the impact assessment of waste management policies; the tool can be used by public institutions and the owners of private waste management plants. To demonstrate the approach, the areas near an incinerating plant and a landfill site, located in two Italian regions, were characterised in terms of the environmental exposure, health status and socio-economic conditions of the local populations. The project initiated a participatory process in the two communities for local strategic waste management planning.
The project team collected environmental data, including air and soil sampling for a range of pollutants and noise monitoring; health data for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases; and socio-economic data using surveys and questionnaires.
An evaluation of the environmental, health and socio-economic impacts of the incinerator (Arezzo, Tuscany) and landfill (Lanciano, Abruzzo) were obtained by applying all the stages of an HIA procedure: screening and scoping of impacts (analysed with local stakeholders); impact assessment (including discussing and presenting results to decision-makers and citizens); recommendations and reporting (with inputs from LA 21 forums and focus groups); and monitoring using indicators designed to evaluate recommended actions.
More specifically, near the incinerator plant, in Arezzo, the impact of PM10 emissions on reproduction, mortality and disease endpoints was estimated through an epidemiological cohort study on more than 50 000 subjects who had resided within the exposed area for at least 10 years. Significant differences in some areas of risk perception were highlighted among residents living within and outside a perimeter of 4 km around the plant. In the area around the landfill, in Lanciano, concentrations of gaseous pollutants (VOC, H2S, SO2, NO2, O3) and of dioxins and furans were negligible, and the prevalence of cancer neoplasm was significantly lower than the regional rate, even in the individual municipalities in the area.
A total of 44 “pressure indicators” were defined and put in place by the project, including 16 environmental, 7 health/epidemiological and 8 socio-economic indicators. The project team also handed over to local decision-makers a set of protocols and a large database of relevant scientific articles (87) and technical reports (34), to support the implementation of impact assessments for waste management policies in the long term. The project involved local communities and relevant stakeholders in a participatory process, to raise awareness and establish guidelines for urban waste management, through the organisation of public forum meetings and focus groups. The involvement was modelled on the basis of the Citizen Forum of Agenda 21 and aimed at developing ownership and commitment to the project objectives in the local administrators and to create close cooperation between scientists, technical agencies and local citizens during the phases of scoping and knowledge building. Events involved about 300-400 people in each of the two towns, discussing processes, methods and results. For this work, the project won second prize in the 2013 WHO-organised Italian Healthy Cities awards.
The guidelines produced through the participatory process supported local planning policies, provided recommendations for monitoring the identified indicators, health surveillance critical points, and suggestions for interventions by local authorities. By project end, the results of the Arezzo study were being used by the local government to guide its policy regarding the local incinerator (limiting its re-powering to a maximum capacity of 55 000 t/yr instead of the current 80 000 t/yr), while in Lanciano door-to-door waste collection was approved and implemented to increase separated waste collected, from the current 38% to 70%, in line with EU legislation.
The project developed an international network of public bodies, research institutions and other HIA stakeholders, which was consolidated by conference presentations, and the preparation and publication of various dissemination and scientific materials. The project’s model can be replicated in small towns (and also provinces and regions) encountering difficulties in reaching EU waste targets. Transferability potential is enhanced as the areas of application can be extended from waste management to other types of policy action with environmental, health and socio-economic impacts.
A key barrier to improving waste management is insufficient public participation. By providing a model for a participatory decision-making process, the project supports the EU Roadmap for the Review of Waste Policy and Legislation (2013), and is in line with the European Environment Agency (EEA) report ‘Towards a green economy in Europe’ (2013) and the DG Environment report ‘Preparation of a plan for waste management’ (2012), the latter explicitly calling for the inclusion of local stakeholders and communities in the waste decision-making process. The Waste Framework Directive (2008) also notes that public consultation should be included in every phase of the policy process. The project raised awareness among local communities and showed local decision-makers that their policies have clear health consequences.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
