Court orders waste company to improve operations near Lucca

(ANSA) – Rome, November 5 – Residents from the Tuscan town of Belvedere near Castelnuovo di Garfagnana were celebrating Tuesday after Italy’s top appeals court upheld their complaints about terrible odours from waste disposal and ordered the company responsible to clean up its operations.

The supreme Court of Cassation also upheld fines against two managers of Se.Ver.A SpA – Oscar Guidi and technical director Antonio Bunazza – and ordered the cleanup of the facility located near Lucca.

It said the company had violated legislation by using outdated equipment that could not manage emissions and odours from its waste-disposal operations. Without improved technology, the court said, the company couldn’t ensure “effective containment of the odors produced in some areas of the plant and in the air and adjacent areas of foul smells”.