The history of AMSA

The major impetus to renew town planning in the city came about after the coronation of Napoleon as the king of Italy in the Milan Cathedral; the first real waste collection service in the city goes back to 1807 when the Municipality of Milan – having set up the Omato Committee – set out the “General Plan for Milan regarding construction and appearance of the city”. In 1907, there was a radical reorganization of the city public hygiene service in Milan, when the Municipality decided to transform it into a community service so that it could manage the service better, taking on a large number of workers (approximately six hundred).
Later, in 1910, the Municipality of Milan identified an area close to what is now the Cascina Gobba where it authorised Milan’s refuse to be deposited. At that time, the families of approximately 500 ecological operators lived in that area, known as the “dustman’s village” which is where solid urban waste was taken for manual selection and recovery. This happened until 1929 when the local authorities decided to extend the service even further, and also the dustmen carrying out the service effectively became employees in an ad hoc but specialised company called SPAI (Servizi Pubblici Anonima Italiana). Its name changed to Gestione Servizio Immondizia, and later, in 1954 SID (Servizio Immondizie Domestiche), which was entrusted with the responsibility of refuse collection: carts pulled by horses where replaced by special trucks with trailers and the system of depositing waste in the court yards of large apartment blocks was replaced by the introduction of more hygiene waste collection bins made of metal, which could also be washed and transported on trucks specially designed for that purpose.

At the end of the sixties, the incineration plant in Via Zama became operative, and a few years later, in 1970, A.M.N.U. (Azienda Municipale Nettezza Urbana) was established, which managed almost 500 thousand tons of refuse annually. In the meantime, the services were extended to include the removal of manifestly abusive dumping to traditional activities, as well as the cleaning of cemeteries and door-to-door collection of cumbersome waste.

In 1975, the incinerator plant in via Silla became operative, replacing the previous incinerator. In 1985, A.M.N.U. changed its name to A.M.S.A. (Azienda Municipalizzata Servizi Ambientali) and the range of services offered continued to grow, making a strong and extensive commitment to the separate collection of glass, paper, expired medicine, flat batteries, and finally, plastic.

In the nineties, there was a considerable evolution in the habits of citizens, which led to a considerable increase in the waste produced pro capita; this situation sparked off a fundamental change within the Company, when it decided that it was time to develop a new environmental policy, based on disseminating a culture of recycling waste. On 21 March 2001, the public utilities company became a joint stock company changing its company status and name to Amsa (Azienda Milanese Servizi Ambientali).

Thanks to the collaboration of its citizens, by 2002 separate waste collection amounted to 32% of total waste collected by Amsa. The company moved even closer to the needs of its clients by offering personalised services and demand for locals authorities to manage public utilities services in the surrounding suburbs continued to increase. In 2001, this led to Amsa extending its own field of action by creating two new companies: Amsadue and Amsatre.

In 2003, the Silla 2 waste-to-energy plant was completed and inaugurated on 21 October of the same year, and not long after it was awarded a prize by the Triennale di Milano trade fair, receiving a “Gold Medal to Italian Architecture for private enterprise”.

By 2004, authorisations were obtained for the plant to become fully operational; in fact, the Silla 1 incinerator was definitively closed; in the same year, the Maserati Light plant for the screening of solid urban waste became operative.

In 2005, upon authorisation of the Municipality of Milan and to comply with the wishes of the citizens of Muggiano, where the composting plant was based, Amsa decided to entrust organic waste collection in Milan for disposal to a third party supplier, resulting in the shutting down of the plant that had been operative for about eight years – and had previously distinguished itself at national level, winning awards such as the “Compost di qualità” Prize, given by CIC (Consorzio Italiano di Compostatori).

From 2006, the company successfully made an important change in the way it carried out the city hygiene service thanks to the introduction of a new and comprehensive street cleaning service so that washing and sweeping of road surfaces and pavements could take place contemporaneously during the same work shift, which is even able to remove waste from underneath parked cars.

Again in 2006, a new methane gas distribution plant was inaugurated for Amsa vehicles, which is located in the Zama department, as further evidence of the extent of the Company’s commitment to gradually replacing less ecological vehicles with natural gas powered ones.

Yet another important step forward was taken in relation to environmental sustainability, thanks to the recent investment of twelve million euros in the creation of the new “Denox” filter for the Silla 2 Waste-to-energy plant - inaugurated on 6 May 2008, which reduces nitrogen oxide and acid emissions by more than 60%.