Tari (waste tax) will be 3% more expensive in 2024 for Novara residents, but not for everyone. The districts of Pernate, Sud, Ovest and Lumellogno – where punctual collection has been activated with a cost saving for the Basso Novarese Basin Consortium of 131 thousand euros – deductions are instead foreseen. Furthermore, the experimental harvest will also start in May in Bicocca and Santa Rita and in Sant’Agabio by the end of the year.
The topic was discussed in the city council this morning, April 24, during which the update of the financial plan of the waste management service was approved in addition to the new tariffs for 2024 with only the votes of the majority, against the three opposition groups.
«Arera, the regulatory authority for energy, networks and the environment, has imposed parameters and the increase is due to the coverage of the costs of the waste collection and disposal service which is equal to 21 million euros» explained the councilor to the Budget, Silvana Moscatelli, who also underlined: «The Pernate district is going back a bit compared to the enthusiasm with which it started, but 19 thousand euros have still been saved, 57 thousand in the South, in the West and in Lumellogno 54 thousand. For this reason the increases will concern all the neighborhoods of Novara except those in which punctual collection is active: Pernate will have a deduction on the tariff of 2.10%, the South of 3.67%, the West and Lumellogno of 2.37 %. The payment will, as always, be divided into two tranches: the first to be paid by 17 June, the second by 16 December”.
However, an increase of 1.60 euros is expected for everyone: 1.50 for victims of floods and earthquakes and 50 cents for the fishing out of waste at sea.
The minority councilors are critical, not on the path taken with the punctual collection but on the timing, starting with the representative of the Democratic Party, Rossano Pirovano: «It is true that a small discount is applied, but we cannot see a real step forward. Let’s not let another three years go by to organize the whole city: in Sant’Agabio we will need to make the citizens understand the importance of separate waste collection, but if we ever leave we will never arrive.”
«This slowness is not helpful and in the neighborhoods where it is being tested you are entitled to a reduction in the tariff, but not to the savings that families could benefit from if the punctual tariff were applied – echoed my fellow dem, Cinzia Spilinga -. There is a need for a push towards change otherwise citizens risk becoming demotivated and the streets continue to be full of abandoned waste.”
«What objective does the Municipality set? What percentage of collection do you want to achieve? – asked the group leader of the M5S, Mario Iacopino -. We want greater awareness of reuse, a severe fight against abandonments and the acceleration of the punctual tariff”.
«By May 24th we will begin the experimentation in the Bicocca and Santa Rita districts – replied Moscatelli -. At the end of the year also in Sant’Agabio, then we will have all the necessary elements for the extension to the whole city. Sant’Agabio is a difficult neighborhood, mediators will also be needed. This organization will also be challenging from an economic point of view because many resources are needed. Every time we introduce the experimental activity in a new neighbourhood, the Municipality has to bear a heavy expense which falls on the tariff, which is why we have decided on a slower path: to not have an impact more than necessary. We are also working on the regulation for waste collection which we will be able to discuss in the council from October. It is a complex document: it is one thing to do punctual collection in a municipality of 5,000 inhabitants, another in a municipality of 100,000.”
