“We are an accredited firm, and there is no danger for the people.” This is what the businessman Bruno Bella, the owner of Solter, the firm in Saronno that collected the 9000 m³ of toxic waste produced after the decontamination of the former chemical plant in Pioltello. “By making our firm available,” Bella explained, “we have helped the Region to avoid an embarrassment in Europe, and a €500 million fine. This waste had to be stored somewhere, and we satisfied the requirements.”

On Tuesday morning, Bella met the Mayor of Saronno, Luciano Porro. Last week, the Mayor asked why he had not been informed, by any authority, that these trucks were going through Saronno. “There was no dangerous release into the atmosphere,” Bella continued. “The material consists of soil soaked with hydrocarbons, which is not like asbestos, which releases particles into the air. This soil only causes problems if you deposit it on uncontaminated soil.”

What is now going to happen to this dangerous waste? Bella explains that it is going to stay in Saronno “for a maximum of forty days, maybe less; it depends on the bureaucratic process. In any case, it’s going to be sent to Germany, because we don’t have any plants in Italy that can dispose of this kind of waste. We just take care of the storage and, I repeat, without any problems. Our plants are super-authorised, we have no legal precedents, in fact, we are proud of the fact that we’ve even received a number of awards for our work.”