Il contributo che segue offre un quadro complessivo dei diversi approcci e strategie attuate rispettivamente in Germania e in Italia nel settore dei rifiuti. Utilizzando un doppio binario di comparazione che combina, da un lato la prospettiva della filosofia del diritto e dall’altra quella più strettamente giuridica, l’analisi qui proposta evidenzia l’esistenza di due modelli distinti che ruotano attorno a una diversa interpretazione del termine ‘responsabilità’ e una diversa interpretazione e implementazione della normativa comunitaria sui rifiuti
Current waste policies in Germany and Italy can be briefly described as follows.Over the years, Germany has successfully moved beyond the phase of landfilling of waste without further treatment, by providing different ways of recovery and re-use in a manner that the percentage of pre-treated waste going to landfills is about 0,5% . Accordingly, landfilling is not a much-debated topic in Germany. By contrast, nuclear waste issue and its complementary political response Energiewende (energy transition) , not covered by this analysis, represent a major field of interest among scientists, policymakers and public opinion. Unlike other European countries, still pursuing landfill-based-waste-management-policy, Germany has successfully promoted other kinds of waste management policies based on prevention principle (Abfallvermeidung), product responsibility (Produktverantwortung) principle, and circular economy (Kreislaufswirtschaft). The factors that enable Germany to achieve these results are, above all, coherent legal and administrative provisions, and a high level of technology concerning waste facilities. Those factors led for instance Germany to ban the landfilling of untreated waste already in 2005. Such coherent legal and administrative framework, as well as population’s active involvement that will be described in terms of social connection model of responsibility in the following paragraph, have definitely favoured the development of investment in waste sector. Finally, information and awareness campaigns aimed at promoting population’s active involvement have also led to a rational and better informed approach to waste-to-energy plants. However, shortfalls in complying with the EU legislation on waste can be well observed. First, Germany is the fifth country in Europe in terms of per capita waste generation and the biggest waste generator (Abfallverursacher) in the EU with regard to municipal waste.
Second, due to incineration overcapacity (Überkapazität) and perverse price incentives, a significant amount of waste is incinerated. Such significant use of waste-to-energy plants is, however, not in line with the European waste legislation, being a departure from the priority order of the waste hierarchy (Abfallhierarchie) provided for by Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC . […]
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Di seguito si riporta il sommario del saggio: Abstract. – 1. Introduction. – 2. Different pathways. – 3. German approach. – 4. Italian approach. – 5. Conclusions.
