The new electronic waste tracing control system, known as Sistri, will not enter into force on September 1. This was decided by the Italian Council of Ministers, that has in fact cancelled the project developed by the Ministry of Environment. The latter, in voice of the minister Stefania Prestigiacomo, described as "very serious" the "unexpected rule included in the budget package, which cancels the electronic waste traceability system. An out-and-out gift to ecomafia".
Prestigiacomo said the Sistri "would have allowed the control and handling of all hazardous waste in the country, eliminating the current paper-based system that enables frauds and abuses and is unable to provide a real-time picture of the handling of waste. The available national data" - said the minister - "have a delay of two years. In words, we claim we want to solve the waste problem that sees half of Italy in an emergency, but then we make gifts to organized crime in the name of administrative simplification, which this time will force companies in the third millennium to use ink instead of the computer. I appeal to the sense of responsibility of all so that we can correct this sensational own goal".
Paolo Uggé, president of Fai Conftrasporto (one of the associations which have denounced the failure of the Sistri project, proposing new solutions at the same time), has a different opinion: "Nobody has made any gifts to the eco-mafias which, indeed, would probably have been favored by a complicated system for small and medium-sized enterprises", said Uggé. "If we add that the Sistri would have entered into force only for Italian companies and not for foreign ones, the picture is complete: practically an invitation to the eco-mafia to pass the border, while creating an enormous damage to Italian companies".
The president of Fai Conftrasporto also addressed a message of openness to a new partnership: "Perhaps by sharing concrete proposals together we can create a project able to counter possible mafia infiltrations in a sector like transport waste, without forcing thousands of workers to waste time and money for no service at all, as has happened so far".