Sewage sludge,

From problem to resource.

Claudio Bodini, President of Padania Acqua (in the photo) is convinced of this. Sewage sludge must become a resource for the community and not remain a waste to be disposed of. A delicate issue with which Watec Italy 2019 has chosen to open the conference sessions, also because, numbers in hand, in the province of Cremona alone there are more than 30 million cubic meters of water treated each year and the issue of sludge is very much heard.An aspect also reiterated by Giovanni Gagliardi, Councilor of the Province of Cremona and by the mayor of the Lombard town Gianluca Galimberti, who underline the importance that the agricultural world does not remain the main destination of the mud, because it is difficult to increase the quantities already used today.The approach? Multidisciplinary. This was recalled to Watec Italy by Luigi Petta, a researcher with Enea, aware that it is possible to work hard on the recovery of phosphorus from sewage sludge, even though it is not always easy to work from a regulatory standpoint. However, the real goal is to produce the minimum amount of wastewater, because even today the quantity of sludge to be managed is becoming really high and above all its origin and composition is extremely variable, making the treatment even more complex.The data collected in Lombardy – according to what was said in Cremona by Giorgio Gallina of the General Environment and Climate Directorate of the Lombardy Region – indicate 60% of the origin of sludge from civil origins, which drops to 30% from the purification of the food sector and only one 10% of industrial origin. Just as it seems clear that agriculture absorbs most of it. Colossal numbers, given that in Lombardy alone 960 thousand tons of sludge are produced every year, of which only 40% are of Lombard origin, while 60% comes from outside the region.An aspect that territorial policies certainly cannot neglect and that will be discussed again at Watec Italy in the coming days.