Considerations About European Directives and Italian Regulation on Sludge from Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants: Current Status and Future Prospective

ABSTRACT

This work reports some reflections about the European and Italian regulation on sewage sludge. In Europe, the progressive augment of the production of sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants has recently led to a growing attention about management of this type of solid matrix.

European Directives and Italian guidelines stimulated reuse of sewage sludge on agricultural soils or in composting factories encouraging the restitution to the biogeochemical natural cycles of recovered material. Nevertheless current Italian law on wastes suggests that sewage sludge must be subjected to the general regulation of waste and sometime public opinion suspect about the sludge recovery practice prevails on the convincement concerning a more convenient waste management.

Fundamental policy of constituting European Union regulation on sewage sludge promotes agricultural reuse when sludge has transformed according to conventional and advanced treatments, this means that a well defined and standardized norm for characterization and treatment is necessary.

In the year 2000, the 3^rd draft of “Working document on sludge” was developed with the aim to promote the use of sewage sludge in agriculture, to ensure safety of land application and to harmonize sludge quality standards. This document can be considered an optimum basis to develop further guidelines considering a new approach to the field.

The aim is to obtain without delay a final draft to introduce a European shared prospective in sewage sludge management which is every time stimulated and directed by certain and actual regulations.