EU Tells Italy To Take Out The Trash, Already

Photo courtesy eternallycool.net

Newly re-elected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the European Commission believe they can do something about the appalling 15-year long trash problem in southern Italy's Campania region around the city of Naples. Berlusconi said he'd spend three days each week in Naples until the trash problems are solved, and the Commission has sued Italy to try to impose hefty fines to the ongoing waste management crisis.

In the past, citizens of Campania have taken to burning piles of trash that get too big or when warm weather made them too stinky. Graffiti artists such as Ruffo are also using their skills to make a point about the trash. Ruffo's depiction of the Mona Lisa holding her sorted trash bags is supposed to get people thinking about recycling - at around 5 percent nationwide, Italy has one of Europe's lowest recycling rates. The trash problem doesn't seem to have an easy fix, however, as local politics seem to be hindering the process of building energy-recovery incinerators and setting up a better recycling and trash infrastructure. The region has lost tourism, and recently the Commission was also forced to take action when Campania's famous buffalo-milk mozzarella was found to be tainted with dioxin thought to have come from uncontrolled trash burning. Via ::ChristianScienceMonitor