Participated assessment of the health, environmental and socio-economic impacts on urban waste handling

Alessandra Pedone – Arezzo - Italia

WHO EUROPEAN HEALTHY CITIES NETWORKAnnual Business and Technical Conference 14-16th of June 2012 St. Petersburg, Russia

LIFE+ 10ENV/000331

Duration: 01.09.2011 – 31.12.2014Regions involved: Toscana, AbruzzoProponent: CNR (Italian National Research Council)Partners: Lanciano Municipalities, Arezzo Local Health Unit, the ISDE (International Society of Doctors for the Environment), the Local Agenda 21 (LA21), Consortium Mario Negri Sud (other national research agency), Environmental Regional Agency of Emilia Romagna, Province of Chieti.

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This HIA project, is the only one financed by the EU-LIFE

The project group

Cause and effect leading to public participation in the decision-making

The LIFE programme is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental policy and legislation by co-financing pilot or demonstration projects with the added input of the EU.

The issueTo evaluate the health, environmental and socio-economic impact in two different waste management plants (Arezzo and Lanciano) supporting decision-makers to choose the best solution for future initiatives and to improve the ongoing waste management.

Main objectives of the HIA21

The purpose of the project is the application of the HIA procedure integrated with that of the LA21 (Local Agenda 21) for the evaluation of the existing and future impacts, as well as for the policy planning of waste cycle management;

The involvement of the local communities interested in the project is already an aspect of the HIA process;

The comparison of two different ways of waste handling and evaluation of the positive and negative aspects;

The development of an innovative instrument of the HIA to adopt in Italy and to share with other European experiences;

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The development of efficient guide-lines of planning policies for decision-makers;

The reinforcement of the local communities in territorial political planning;

The development of an international network between administrations and research groups in waste handling and management.

The project covers 3 areas

Environment Health Socio-economic issues 8

Main objectives of the HIA21

Step A

The first step concerns the agreement of LA21 forum of the area chosen with the HIA Working Group (WG). The two groups will then meet to start the partnership and to identify the environmental, health and socio-economic critical factors related to the plant.

The project consists of six main steps

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For each of the planned items, meetings with all the local stakeholders will be organized and started up.

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At the end of this step, sets of indicators to be evaluated by the HIA WG for the scoping achievement, will be obtained.

In case of the lack of data on the state of the health of the communities involved in the project, the results from a rapid context analysis is justified.

A – Indicatori epidemiologiciA1 Mortalità: tutte le causeA2 Cause di morteA3 Basso peso alla nascita

B – Indicatori sui servizi sanitariB1 Esistenza di un programma cittadino dieducazione sanitariaB2 Percentuale di bambini che hannocompletato i cicli vaccinatoriB3 Numero di abitanti per medicoimpegnato nell’assistenza sanitaria primariaB4 Numero di abitanti per infermiereB5 Percentuale di popolazione coperta daassicurazione sanitariaB6 Disponibilità di servizi sanitari primarierogati in lingua stranieraB7 Numero di argomenti relativi alla saluteesaminati in Consiglio Comunale ogni anno

C – Indicatori ambientaliC1 Inquinamento atmosfericoC2 Qualità dell’acqua potabileC3 Percentuale di inquinanti rimossi dalle acque reflue prodotteC4 Indice di qualità della raccolta dei rifiuti urbaniC5 Indice di qualità dello smaltimento dei rifiuti urbaniC6 Aree verdi nella cittàC7 Aree verdi della città accessibili al pubblicoC8 Aree industriali dismesseC9 Sport e tempo liberoC12 Trasporto pubblicoC13 Diffusione della rete di trasporto pubblicoC14 Spazi abitabiliD – Indicatori socio-economiciD1 Percentuale di popolazione che vive in alloggi di livello inferiore allo standardD2 Stima del numero dei senzatetto

Step B

The HIA WG will proceed to the scoping step, that is, it will carry out all actions necessary for the characterization of the structure, on the basis of defined indicators.

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Then, it will gather the pre-existing data (literature, technical documents, previous studies) and extrapolate new data by specific monitoring with regards to the environmental impact, as well as using information from questionnaires on the socio-economic data.

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Step C

The HIA WG will show the LA21 forum the scoping results, including criticisms and recommendations previously made by the forum and the stakeholders participating, and will share with them the outline of the next steps.

As usual, thematic meetings will also be held in this step.

Step D

This is the step in which the various impacts will be evaluated. These will be carried out with the continuous cooperation between the HIA WG and the LA21 forum.

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The quantification of the critical factors related to the plant is the main objective in this step. All the items, and all the relevant indicators for each of them, will be considered.

Step E

In this step, recommendations to the decision-makers will be developed. The LA21 forum and HIA WG will provide recommendations for the proper management of the plant which includes mitigation and compensation measures to be taken in relation to all the items of the project.

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In addition, indicators for the environmental and health monitoring and suggestions on management policies of the whole waste cycle and territorial planning policies, will be established.

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During all the meetings, particular care will be devoted to the involvement of groups of disadvantaged citizens and those which are sensitive to the impact of the plant, taking care to include in the LA21 procedure, those people which are not represented, i.e. usually nonparticipants.

Step F

This will be the monitoring step. The LA21 forum and the HIA WG will meet quarterly to develop measures to monitor the critical factors and to show the results of measures already taken.

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In this step, if the management of the plants and the planning policies are not compliant with the recommendations suggested to the decision-makers, strategies will be planned. In this step, the LA21 forum commits to continuing the meetings with the stakeholders of the area.

One of the aims of the project is to reduce the quantity of waste to be processed as much as possible by the end of the project itself.

The aim is also to improve the quality of urban waste collection.

The main instrument will be a report for the decision-makers that will represent the starting point for the elaboration of the “HIA guidelines” applied to waste treatment.

All the information collected during the project will feed the specific Data Base that will be useful for various elaborations.

The guidelines will contain:

1. practical suggestions to resolve difficulties that similar future projects could face

2. tools for sampling and data collecting programmes depending on plant typology and extension

3. the number of people directly involved

4. waste management local politics

5. health data availability

6. etc..

This handbook will contain questionnaires for the population together with suggestions on how to modulate them according to specific requirements.

http://www.hia21.eu/q_arezzo/

The general guidelines or manual will be released on the website of the project. Its synthetic version will be distributed through newsletters to all possible interested Bodies, in particular Regional EIA committees, so they have a new instrument to evaluate the projects submitted and so can give an informed opinion which will also take into consideration the results and methodologies proposed in the HIA21.

A copy in electronic format will be uploaded on their HIA21 website.

The document will also be translated into English for the European municipalities interested in applying this tool in their policies of waste management.

Such tools will also be included in existing HIA documents such as Abruzzo Region guidelines, Emilia-Romagna “Moniter project monography” etc.

Achievements 1. to create and develop a new tool, involving the local population,

for the investigation and evaluation of health, environmental and socio-economic effects due to incinerators and landfills;

2. to provide recommendations and, if possible, guidelines for the application of the HIA and the LA21 to the waste cycle;

This will allow a comparison between waste treatment methods, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages according to the best available technologies and the costs connected to the realization and management.

3. to communicate assessment methodologies at a local, national and community level, creating strong territorial expertise and knowledge;

4. to create a set of health, environmental, economic and social indicators for the study areas, which is to be updated annually during the entire project;

5. to test the efficiency of the interventions relating to the degree of trust created in the citizens and the success in the ability to actively share in the decision-making process;

6. to draw up two reports for the decision-makers, one for each kind of plant, which will be a new tool to aid local public administrators in the definition of the planning of future territory policies;

Lanciano Arezzo

7. and finally, to create an international network to share the results obtained in similar projects and to create a network of links and expertise which can be extended even after the established end of the project.

Other anticipated results:

- to set up, apply and optimize an innovative investigation tool for Italy, combining scientific rigour in the application of environmental and health assessment and actions;

- to present a monitoring system to be adopted by the population;

- to evaluate how these two kinds of treatment impact both environment and management;

- to test a tool for the health, environmental and socio-economic assessment of two different kinds of municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment, which could be applied to other national and European contexts;

- to provide new and more efficient guidelines for the political planning of the waste cycle management.

Cronoprogramma 2011 - 2012

Azioni HIA212011 2012

IV I II III IV

A.1 - Creazione del gruppo di lavoro permanente, nomina del project leader, del project manager generale, dei responsabili scientifici e dei responsabili per le attività di diffusione e comunicazione

A.2 - Predisposizione di un questionario strutturato

A.3 - Finalizzazione del forum di A21L e formazione dei focus group a Lanciano

A.4 - Finalizzazione del forum di A21L e formazione dei focus group ad Arezzo

A.5 - Progettazione della piattaforma web

A.6 - Studio preliminare, ricognizione della letteratura

A.7 - Definizione degli indicatori da sottoporre ai forum e agli incontri tematici

A.8 - Implementazione e manutenzione del portale internet del progetto

A.11 - Gestione del progetto

A.12 - Monitoraggio del progetto

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Conclusion The project is still ongoing but it is already possible

to positively evaluate the choice made by the partners, to involve the population concerned, thus creating a valid participation tool.