MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL BY INCINERATION: ENVIRONMENTAL AND TECHNICAL ISSUES, IN ITALY

Abstract

Italy produces about 30 million tons of municipal waste (MW), a part of these is disposed by incineration in 48 plants that treat about 5.4 Mt anno-1as MW or dry fraction and/or RDF. The regions with higher values of separate collection are essentially located in the northern part of the country, the same using a high portion of waste for energy recovery. This confirms the
possible synergy between recycling and incineration. Energy recovery is strategic for environmental impact mitigation in this type of plant, even considering that main objective of this sector remains the disposal of the waste. A great attention is paid to the emissions, must however considered that application of Best Available Techniques (BAT) in the current systems involve extremely low emissions. The dioxin emissions assessment from all existing national RU incineration plants is approximately 0.3% of dioxin emissions from total national
sources.