Public policies for contaminated site cleanup: evidence from a survey of the Italian public

Abstract

Cleaning up contaminated sites is currently considered one of the most important environmental policy priorities in many countries. Remediation of contaminated sites is attractive because it reduces risks to human health and ecological systems, and brings a host of potential social and economic benefits. Public programmes are deemed necessary by the law and in practice to address contamination at orphan site and to speed up the general processes of cleanups in most countries. People's opinion regarding these programmes in general and the priorities to be addressed is useful and pertinent given the large amount of resources to be devoted to the goal of remediation. In this work, we present the result of a national survey of the Italian public.