According to the EU Waste Framework Directive (European Directive 2006/12/EC), waste is defined as “any substance or object the holder discards, intends to discard or is required to discard”. Waste may be broadly classified in three ways: Hazardous waste that usually meets one or more of these four characteristics: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity; Non-hazardous waste; Inert waste
Waste can be disposed of in a number of ways, including landfill, incineration, recycling, mechanical biological treatment (anaerobic digestion and/or composting), pyrolysis and plasma arc gasification. The management for non-hazardous residential and institutional waste in urban areas, including collection, disposal and planning aspects , are usually the responsibility of local government authorities. At the national level, EU legislation (through Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste) requires each Member State to draw up one or more waste management plans in compliance with relevant EU directives, which are implemented by regional or local authorities. Each individual Member State has the duty to apply the principles of these directives when implementing a national waste management system. The “Ronchi” decree (Waste Management Act 22/77), published in February 1997 and the subsequent revisions of this Act, regulated the management of waste in Italy at the national level, forbidding uncontrolled landfills and stipulating that every region must have a waste management plan. Despite the EU directive of 1999, which limited the use of landfills, this practice remains the main method of waste disposal in Italy. |