Pitch

The project we monitored has the title "Domestic composing to reduce the production of municipal waste ATO AG 3 Dedalo"  aimed to recycle the organic rubbish used at home. It is a very old project, but it did not bring to a happy end for a sustainable disposal of waste. The objective of the research is to find the reasons why we are not able to carry out the waste collection properly and to find some solutions to encourage people to be more respectful to the environment. So the research is aimed to raise people's awareness towards the environmental issues, starting from keeping clean our own town. We found interesting data on the website https://www.catasto-rifiuti.isprambiente.it since 2013, where we observed the percentages of separate waste collection in the municipality of Licata,  While doing our researches, we found some graphs , which showed  that  in 2019 there was 8.26 % separate collection, rising to 33.74 % in 2022. This increase coincided with the distribution of containers to citizens which was the main core  of the project . Other significant figures that emerge from the tables examined are:
The decrease in the number of inhabitants by almost 5000 from 2010 to 2022;
The persistence of the urban waste production figure;
The increase in the pro capite production of separate waste (from 26.24 kg in 2010 to 196.57 in 2022).. We decided to interview the person in charge for carrying out the project. But it was impossible to contact him, so we realized it would have been better to contact the mayor. 

During our monitoring we found out that Dedalo Ambiente had seen a €300,000 funding revoked, destined for the project . The revocation decree was issued by the director general of the department. Dedalo Ambiente was requested, on 20 September 2016, to provide a detailed list of private users to whom the compost bins had been delivered, as well as a complete overview of the distribution of all the equipment purchased. Through our research we found out that a lot of bins stored in a warehouse were set on fire by unknown vandals https://www.licatanet.it/a-fuoco-i-mastelli-della-differenziata-nellex-m... .  From an interview to the mayor of Licata, Angelo Balsamo ,  we learnt about the new plans for the waste management. 
Waste composting does not currently contribute to the municipal budget. Composting is useful but it has never been implemented. At the moment there is outsourced rubbish management since the municipality has been declared financially bankrupt and is relieved of all past debts and a different management can be considered. One of the highest costs is landfilling. Organic waste is the most difficult to dispose of. If organic waste were composted, disposal would cost much less. 

We take the responsability to continue the project by monitoring the waste management in  Licata taking information by the people and  the news, and get in action if something is wrong. As we are at our last year of school we won't be able to keep on this monitoring in the school, but we will continue on social media, by sharing news to sensibilize people, we will continue in our everyday life and in our community, in associations, with families and friends. 

Anyway, all the materials produced during this monitoring will be useful to other students sensitive to environmental issues.