The regulatory framework that contains all legislative prescriptions on the environment is set out in full below.

In 2006, Legislative degree n. 152 dated 3 April 2006 came into effect. Although it has not yet obtained all of the relevant approvals, its objective is to bring together all issues related to the environment and the water cycle in the form of a Consolidated Act. Said act is a natural progression of the direction taken by Legislative Decree n. 22 dated 5 February 1997 ("Ronchi Decree") with a series of changes, most of which contained, as far as the operations of the Hera Group are concerned, in Chapter IV.

As regards waste management, the latter provision reiterates the observance of the Community waste hierarchy, prioritising lower waste production (and where produced, at a lower level of hazardousness), the recovery of materials and energy, as well as, lastly, the final disposal of the same.

Within the scope of the above-cited hierarchy, Hera Group operates by means of an integrated system of recovery and disposal plants that meet the requirements of the territory served by the same, covering both municipal waste and that produced by the industrial facilities in the vicinity of the latter area.

One of the distinguishing features of the Hera Group operational structure is its establishment in a harmonised territorial framework; in fact, operating mainly within a single region enables conduct which has a significant environmental impact to be standardised in line with Community, national and regional legislative provisions.

Of these, Regional Law 25/1999 is worth a special mention, which regulates, amongst other things, the establishment and the functioning of the Optimum Territorial Area Agencies, as well as the various forms of management of both the Integrated Water Cycle and the Integrated Management of Municipal Waste.

In line with the above regulations, Hera Group directly coordinates and/or manages the entire range of environmental services, including road sweeping, waste collection and transport, as well as the recovery and disposal of the same.

Recovery activities are provisionally disciplined by regulations enacted by the cited Legislative Decree 22/1997 whilst awaiting the enactment of the technical regulations established by Legislative Decree 152/2006.

In this regard, in addition to disposal plants per se, the following regulations are also of note:

a) Legislative Decree n. 36 dated 13 January 2003 regarding landfills, which established criteria for the construction and management of the same, also through the issue of subsequent technical provisions;
b) Legislative Decree n. 133 dated 11 May 2005 regarding waste-to-energy plants, which established the criteria and general technical standards for construction and functional characteristics, as well as the operating conditions of waste incineration and co-incineration plants, with specific reference to the need to provide a high level of protection to the environment against the emissions caused by waste incineration and co-incineration;

The guidelines for the identification and the use of the best available techniques for waste management also pertain to the group's operations, as set forth in Legislative Decree n. 59 dated 18 February 2005, issued by a Decree of the Ministry for the Environment dated 29 January 2007, regarding various types of plant (incineration, chemical-physical treatment of solid and liquid waste, selection, treatment of electric and electronic equipment and PCB, etc.), in order to reduce atmospheric pollution.
In 2006, the company strived to improve the services it provides, to prevent negative impacts on the environment and on the health of citizens, obtaining environmental certification ISO 14001 for Hera S.p.A. and its Territorial Operative Structure, also proceeding with the EMAS project which aims to obtain environmental registration of 53 disposal plants by 2010.
Hera provides rate setting and billing services to municipalities that have introduced the Environmental Health Fee (TIA) to replace (TARSU) taxes: this covers 63 Municipalities with a total of approximately 1,420,000 inhabitants, corresponding to 61% of the population served.

Page updated 22 August 2011