Stepping across the threshold of Geos Environment’s headquarters feels like entering a different space. You immediately sense the focus of those who have chosen to take on concrete wounds — those inflicted on the environment in Campanian communities. It is here that we meet engineer Antonio Marotta, president of Geos Environment, based in Pastorano. With a calm but firm manner he welcomes us and immediately begins to tell the story of Geos’s commitment. We talk about Campania and the “Land of Fires.” Marotta has built his experience on remediation and the waste cycle, convinced that technical skill alone is not enough. What is needed is an alliance between competent companies, academic institutions and citizens who refuse to remain passive. The real obstacle, he says with a hint of bitterness, is cultural: the habit of living with landfills, the fatalism that justifies resignation, the bureaucracy that slows things down even when solutions exist. It is a silent suffering that weighs on those who work in this field. For years, as Informare, we have been reporting the need to put high-quality remediation back at the center of the response to the environmental crisis. At Geos Environment we found the same conviction. The victory over fires and diffuse pollution starts here: with expertise.

How did your commitment begin and where does Geos come from?

“I am a civil engineer who for over 40 years has dealt with environmental issues. Over the years I have participated in several technical-scientific committees to better understand correct waste management, because in the past everything ended indiscriminately in landfills, often uncontrolled. My objective has always been to recover material from waste — whether municipal or industrial — and, above all, not to disperse it into the environment. Consequently, I actively participated in the Technical Committee for Landfill Management (CTD) and the Technical Committee for Contaminated Sites (CTTC). I am currently a member of CIRS, the Interdisciplinary Committee on Waste and Health, to better understand the relationships between waste production/management and human health. Since 1987, with GEOS we have been working in the environmental sector, primarily in industrial contexts, serving large industries and major clients who are increasingly sensitive to environmental issues. Our main goal is to manage industrial waste potentially containing contaminants — solid, liquid or gaseous — and the resulting environmental liabilities, carrying out monitoring, securing and remediation interventions. The management of industrial residues, understood as waste, aims first of all at possible reuse and, when that is not possible, at recovery. Today our company operates on national and international markets with environmental engineering activities, industrial waste management and the remediation of contaminated sites.”

Let’s move to the “Land of Fires.” What worries you, and what gives you hope?

“I am worried about the conditions that still persist in some areas of the country, especially in Campania where, in certain zones, illegally dumped waste piles continue to persist despite the efforts of public administrations and control bodies. That mortifies me, both as a technician and, even more, as a man from the South. However, I want to remain optimistic. I believe the problem is as much cultural as structural. There must be ongoing information and education, especially in schools, where our future lies. It is also necessary to have the courage and civic sense to report wrongdoing.”

Research and technology: which paths are you following, and what do the results tell you?

“I consider myself more an engineer than an entrepreneur. We are currently carrying out an important research project with the Vanvitelli University on the recovery of material from end-of-life tyres. At Geos we like to support material recovery and site remediation projects, even as experimental research activities: even today we do not always have full certainty about the results and — above all — the times required to achieve complete remediation of a contaminated site. As a result, interventions often focus on securing sites which, while effective temporarily, cannot be considered true remediation. A few years ago, together with several Italian universities, we published a book in the ‘Guide de Il Sole 24 Ore’ series on contaminated soil remediation, in which we collected experiences, methods and guidance on how to treat them. For this reason I believe it is crucial that public administrations and companies rely on competent people and firms. The risk of making mistakes and causing greater damage is real.”

Waste and health: what emerges from the Committee? Can you give a concrete example?

“The committee involves several universities, including Padua, Milan, Siena and Catania. Researchers and professionals, together with other companies, try to understand the relationships between waste management, waste generation and human health, helping to dispel the many falsehoods that circulate. A concrete example is end-of-life tyres: when properly managed, it is possible to recover 100% of the material — vulcanized rubber, fabric and steel. By contrast, abandonment on roads can trigger fires with consequent toxic emissions that are particularly harmful to human health. As with other solid wastes that are burned, there is also the big problem of microplastics, another major environmental issue with no easy solution. I am concerned about both current and future effects of plastics: indiscriminate and irresponsible use creates major problems that impact the environment and human health. For example, research by the University of Catania has even found microplastics in human sperm.”

Goals and vision: where do you want to take GEOS and what will you leave to younger generations?

“Geos’s greatest achievement is the continuity in researching environmental techniques and methods that allow us to be ever closer to our clients. We are now in the second generation and, thanks to the contribution of new and passionate perspectives, in 2024 we voluntarily published our first sustainability report, which makes us proud of our corporate journey and of what we have done so far with our young people. As a person, a Neapolitan and a Campanian citizen, I would like us to free ourselves from clichés: the few negative cases — which nevertheless make a lot of noise — should be resolved without clamor, because among us clamor often becomes instrumentalized. To a young journalist I would say: pursue your thought with intelligence, with the capacity for critique and, above all, for self-critique. Listen to many voices before forming an opinion: pluralism, in the cultural sense, is a method.”

Source: informareonline.com