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Community stakeholding, for managing local services
Results

Impact on local development
In 12 years of business, the management of the Peccioli plant has generated about Euro 100 million, which has been invested by the municipal authorities and the Belvedere company in significant local activities.

Overall, the trend in the accounts of the Municipality of Peccioli has been impressive. The additional resources provided by the rubbish dump have enabled public investment to be multiplied and the level of spending to be held at its current level. The investments have focused on improving services and developing public works and infrastructure: roads, schools, sports facilities, a media centre, a multi-storey car park, a museum of Russian icons that has appeared at various international exhibitions, an infancy service centre, a network of support services for the elderly, and a multifunctional theatre and congress centre.




The continuing flow of refuse has provided the basis for proper management of the environment. The operating results have provided the basis for local development in terms of:
• employment creation: new jobs have been created at Belvedere S.p.A., which now employs 30 people;
• enterprise culture: in the last 14 years, co-operatives and companies have developed, for which Belvedere has acted an enterprise incubator;
• containing charges and taxes;
• improving the range of services provided, especially to the elderly, needy and children.

Since 1995, the Municipality of Peccioli has been experimenting with new instruments for the provision and organisation of services to the local community. The most significant result has been the creation of a network of services for social animation, monitoring, prevention and home-help for those citizens who are not self-sufficient. The local assistance system is based on two structures: a services centre for social animation and home-help co-ordination, and an experimental residence that provided accommodation to the elderly at critical moments on a short-stay basis. The services centre is run by a co-operative of young people trained and assisted during the start-up by the group that designed the “network” of services.




Ecological–environmental impact
Today, the refuse from a large part of the territory of the Tuscany Region is handled by the Peccioli plant, which has in a short time become one of the most efficient refuse disposal centres in Italy. The Municipality of Peccioli has not only resolved the waste problem, it has also made the dump environmentally compatible, and in so doing achieved recognition from some of Europe’s most important environmental certification bodies.

The Peccioli plant has been certified as innovative because of the following features:
• There are no negative impacts on the habitat, as all possible causes of pollution and contamination are under control.
• The recycling of the residual waste is undertaken on a provincial-level basis, so reducing travel times and distances to a minimum.
• Some of the residual waste produces energy, in the form of biogases, and this energy is distributed locally.
• The proceeds from the rubbish dump are shared between the citizens (on the basis of community stakeholding) and the public authority, which can utilise them to make medium- to long-term investments, also in collaboration with the aforementioned private shareholders.
• The financial structure, consolidated in Belvedere S.p.A., has enabled significant collaboration in the field of advanced research, thereby increasing the level of specific expertise and triggering a virtuous process of investment, also involving other sectors.