Balancing the Stake. The Creation of the Centre for Industrial Waste Treatment in Modena (Italy)

The Centre for Industrial Waste Treatment is the biggest plant of its kind in Italy, and the only one under public management. It is located in Modena, in the Emilia Romagna region, and is managed by a public agency — AMIU (Azienda Municipale di Igiene Urbana) — owned by the local municipality. As it is today, the Centre is the result of the realisation of a first plant and the subsequent addition of two other plants. Far from being designed as a single project implemented in different phases, the Centre was added on to during the years, each plant having been decided upon separately. What we have, then, is not a single process decision making, related to the Centre as a whole, but three different processes concerning:a)the realisation of the first inertisation plant (called Soliroc 1) for toxic waste treatment, with a capacity of 25,000 tons/year (1978–1985);b)the realisation of an incinerator for toxic waste, with a capacity of 5,000 mc./year (1984–1993);c)the realisation of the second inertisation plant (called Soliroc 2) for toxic waste treatment, with a capacity of 50,000 tons/year (1988–1993).