Italian Government Promises to Resolve "Tragedy of the Trash"
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 01. 6.08
Image courtesy of Salvatore Laporta/AP
Remember the sad tale of Naples, the Italian city that has, quite literally, been buried under heaps of trash? Well, after watching more than 100,000 tons accumulate in the city and surrounding region, the Italian government has finally promised to help resolve the mounting issue, with Giorgio Napolitano, the country's president, calling it the "tragedy of the trash." Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, also pledged his intention to "definitely" deal with the problem - which has persisted since 1994.
It wouldn't be the first time the federal government has pledged its assistance: Since 1994, it has spent close to 2b euros and appointed 8 succeeding regional heads to fix the problem, all to no avail. As a result of the limited amount of space in the surrounding landfills, trash collection has now completely stopped. Local protesters are refusing authorities' requests to reopen some to help alleviate the situation; they have set fire to four buses and have gotten into a number of scuffles with the police over the past few days.
City officials are pinning the blame in part on the Camorra, the local mafia, which they argue benefit from the chaos caused by the protests. "Trash is gold," recalled Franco Roberti, a local magistrate, referring to the words of a mafia boss. Despite concerns about poor air quality, the Italian government has ordered the reopening of all the region's schools. The minister of the interior said that he'd be ready to deploy the army to help ensure the removal of trash near the schools.
Via ::Le Monde: Les autorités italiennes dénoncent "la tragédie des déchets" à Naples (French newspaper)
See also: ::Naples Buried Under a Heap of Trash, ::Littering in Outer Space
Let's see. How many governments has Italy constituted since the end of WII? Something over 80 comes to mind .
Similarities between Katrina and Naples trash crisis? The commonality is denial.
Smelly old Europe is so glamorous, and the people so snobby. I can't for the life of me figure out why.
Mafia or no, this is a perfect example of the fact that trash doesn't just get "thrown out". It goes some place, and fills up those places quickly.
The county where I live in Washington forecasts that our last landfill will be completely full in 2 years, and after that, the trash will start getting shipped out to a landfill in Oregon over 200 miles away.
Maximizing our recycling should be a no brainer. It saves energy in not needing to remine the materials, it saves greenhouse gases from escaping into the atmosphere via decomposition, and it saves our streets from getting overrun with filth if the mafia run amuck with our trash services. :)
Perhaps a trash burning facility with scrubbers, used to generate elctricity, maybe run the CO2 exhaust into an algal biofuel facility (20-30% increase in output when you add the CO2 like that). There are answers when you don't stay in the ruts...
Perhaps a trash burning facility with scrubbers, used to generate elctricity, maybe run the CO2 exhaust into an algal biofuel facility (20-30% increase in output when you add the CO2 like that). There are answers when you don't stay in the ruts...
Everything I need to know about how to prevent this from happening elsewhere I learned in Kindergarten:
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.
that's nice, but what are they going to do about the human trash in naples?
Shame on us, shame on the italians and, specially, shame on who rules here: our politicians.
I wrote "our" because I'm italian and I'm lucky enough to live in city (Florence, Mid Italy) with minor problems.
Our country is cutted in two half: north from Rome (like Firenze, Bologna, Milano, Torino, Rome itself) and south (Napoli, Reggio Calabria, Bari, Palermo).
In the South, OMG, it's a disaster: trash, hospital, job market, crime, mafia.
An you know what? It doesnt play any role which party is going to rule: right, left, middle, anyone doesnt give a rat's ass (is this expression so unpolite in english?) to South and to our (as Italy) endemic issues.
I think its said when they cant figure out to do with there trash its called
REDUCE
REUSE
RECYCLE
daahhh
It saves on resources, energy, and most importantly it creates jobs
one thing is they can put it in the recycling bin but it doesn't mean it will get recycled so the best thing is to force companies to use recycled content in there products so that would mean the government would have to pass recycled content laws
The Itailian gvt haven't put in incinerators because the Mafia don't like them. The gvt needs to ship out the Mob and then put up incinerators!!!
i agree about the reduce, reuse and recycle.
it takes common sense that if you can get those who needs jobs, to do this, there's a win-win situation, therefore this plan needs to be implented soon.
i agree about the reduce, reuse and recycle.
it takes common sense that if you can get those who needs jobs, to do this, there's a win-win situation, therefore this plan needs to be implented soon.
i agree about the reduce, reuse and recycle.
it takes common sense that if you can get those who needs jobs, to do this, there's a win-win situation, therefore this plan needs to be implented soon.