Urban Solid Waste Disposal: The Sea Reclamation Alternative

The work has been focused on the problem of the urban solid waste disposal and of the dumps of terrous and/or rocky materials coming from the background, and from houses and obsolete industrial plants demolitions. In Italy every year 60 millions of tons' of waste are produced, whose a quota of 5% is submitted to a treatment, a half of this portion is utilized for energetic recovery. The rest of production partially differentiated is buried in controlled inland dumps. The hundred thousands of cubic meters of materials coming from escavations are so far employed in extension of industrial, port and airport areas on the coast. We take as sample the Province of Genoa (about 800 tons/day of urban solid waste partially differentiated and about 1500 tons/day of materials disposal — dump) and we have designed the following alternative proposal: the waste partially differentiated (15%), after to be taken under a treatment of inertisation and of mix up with crushed calcareous debris, are packed in geotextile bags as containers, and placed in circumscribed sea surfaces to form reclamations for the creation of areas useful for intermodal activities in port environment. The system proposed by us has been patended in Italy by the "Group" Progettisti e Costruttori Associati — Genoa".