Not just Naples’ problem
I’m adding a new article from BBC News that seems to have a handle on how this crisis is developing. I’ve been waiting for seven years for the Italian people to get angry enough to shake their fists in the faces of those who don’t serve them. They are in the piazzas now doing just that.
In addition, there is another blog with an article on this problem with more discussion among people who care about waste.
Bear with me please. I am going to try to bring you the real story of what is happening and has been happening in Naples concerning refuse. Rai Television has films used on the newscasts, in Italian, of course, but the visuals are compelling. I’m hoping that link will take you straight to the first story, but if it doesn’t, you can select TG1 Emergenza Napoli Rifiuti, but first you must watch a brief commercial starring the old man of Italian TV.
And then you can see this, TG1 – Rifiuti, Campania ancora nel caos. I know you won’t understand the words unless you speak Italian, but the images will help you understand what’s going on.
It’s possible that this only takes you to the player and you will have to select the film you want to see.
There’s some print media on the subject, like here at Yahoo! news. I think the reports are seriously underplayed. The crisis is mindblowingly terrible and it has been building for over a decade. When I was in Campania last autumn, my friends and I walked through a beautiful gem of a city, Caserta, and had to encircle piles of trash in the streets, stinking and rotting. There’s too much trash and nowhere to put it.
The reason is partly nimby and partly corruption and partly that like almost everywhere these days, people make too much junk. Somehow, and I will let the Neapolitan politicians explain how that happened, refuse contracts were made with the mob, which in Naples is the Camorra. Even though they and their families live there, they didn’t have the sense to know they had to keep dangerous medical refuse separated from household refuse, that they needed to contract for and build landfills and that they really needed to cart the stuff away and get rid of it. Instead, they took the money and ran, not far, because they would have no power at all outside Campania, and they therefore proved that criminals are stupid, the politicians who play ball with criminals are stupid and people in general will have to come to grips with organized crime because no one else will. Now the criminals, the corrupt and weak politicians and all of the millions who live in Campania live with the resulting mountains of deadly refuse. The people have gone to the streets over this and set fire to the trash mountains, with possibly even more deadly results. I’m not sure which is more sick-making; breathing those fumes or drinking water polluted by the unburned trash.
So, you ask, why should you care? Isn’t it enough to just say we’ll skip Campania on our trip to Italy?
I don’t think so. There is no place on earth that is proof against this problem of too much trash produced over a long period of time. Those mountains of refuse were produced in what is one of the poorer parts of Italy. Imagine what is being produced in more affluent parts of the world. Now multiply that by the length of time it will take for your grandchildren to grow up. What will happen to all this stuff? Will you fill the Grand Canyon? Throw it in the ocean and kill or make poisonous all the fish? Or the latest, which is to throw it into active volcanoes? What if it just gets thrown back up?
This article in the Independent expands the statistics to include other European areas, but we all know that it isn’t just Europe.
The truth is that we all have to take responsibility for ourselves and our production of waste. We have to think hard about every single thing that becomes refuse in our own lives and how it could have been prevented in the first place. Whether that is new packaging ideas, tighter recycling laws and possibilities or just saying no to packaging and disposables and cutting back on the endless purchasing we do, something must change.
The next story could be yours.
I get frustrated with all the extra packaging on a product. Cardboard, box, wrapper, more box, more wrapping. In the 70′s we used to unwrap all the packaging at the register and just take the product. I doubt we did any good.
What really surprises me is that the Italian government doesn’t send the Army in to clean up this mess and ship the garbage to the incinerators in Germany or wherever. Then again I don’t understand why my own government hasn’t done all that it should have about New Orleans and vicinity, except that someone has committed so many of our forces to Iraq.
On the other hand the wild boar that attack your garden don’t seem too bad compared to the garbage.
Gil, it’s a regional problem and it’s already paid for. I think in part the struggling government is thinking that way. If they use government forces, it’s like asking all Italians to help pay off the Camorra. It is also very dangerous work now that they know they threw medical waste in with the regular waste.
Maryann, I think that everybody has to refuse at once to accept all this excessive packaging. And everyone at once needs to commit to recycling. Can it happen? Probably not, but if we don’t start somewhere… Italians are so picky about germs, too. If you can’t pick up a pineapple without plastic gloves, it probably means they love shrink-wrapped stuff. But someone handled it before it was shrink-wrapped and who knows where those hands were?
And then there are the ink cartridge packages.
Naples isn\’t the only place that used organized crime for refuse halling. My sister\’s best friend worked in waste halling in the Detroit area, and he claimed it,too, was \
So true. One of my goals this year is to get this village’s recycling program back up and running (bins were here and people actually used them but then the bottles and whatnot were never picked up and now the bins are just used for any old trash). Of course we don’t have a mayor right now so I have quite a bit of work ahead of me.
Run for mayor. I’ll come for the investiture if you win.
Lee, I’ve heard that about other places, too, but could never prove anything.
And folks, Italy makes less waste and recycles a larger percentage of waste than the UK does. There’s a graph showing the EU figures somewhere, and Italy isn’t doing badly compared to many.
i was just in nyc and i was stunned by the trash there. it is negligible in comparison with Naples, but yet, even a little bit is a problem. in coffee shops the trash cans were overflowing, papers and cups were strewn around the tables on the floor. no one seemed to notice. it was like a twilight zone after switzerland. how do people live…or even just sit in a coffee shop like that? where are the boundaries and the respect of others \’ space, and the respect of others\’ right to enjoy the world
switzerland is notorious for being anal, and boring even, about its cleanliness, but they ARE doing something right, big time. there is not even road kill on the roads, which would be unsightly. they planned ahead for that. and there are trash cans, and recycling bins everywhere. im often surprised people complain about the cleanliness. i really cherish this and wonder how other countries could emulate this
Jessica, it’s true that Switzerland probably won’t have this problem any time soon. I only wish the Swiss would find a middleground between being really clean and being undisciplined, because I haven’t found it a very welcoming place sometimes, and I don’t litter!
The problem isn’t just one thing anywhere. The problem is humanity. While a bear may poop in the woods, he doesn’t eat from cardboard or plastic and he doesn’t leave trash around.
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My post disappeared
It did! I’m glad that you didn’t.
Is there any update on the army moving into Naples to clean the mess up; are they making progress?
Last I saw they were, but Napolitani are not content. I’ve been under the weather, so I haven’t seen the news lately. I’ll check some newspapers.
Hope you’re feeling better!
How are the Italian reports looking? Or has the story slid off the radar?
No, it is still active. There will eventually be multiple short term solutions, but it will remain an ugly situation until a workable long term solution exists.
Part will go to Germany to be burnt to make power, but only sorted trash is acceptable. Part will go to landfills in Sardinia. Part will assuredly go into the filled landfill that has caused so much grief already.
This was on our local news Saturday morning and the national news Sunday morning.
Pay attention, then, because what they are saying is this could be a problem everywhere eventually if sane solutions aren’t sought before it happens. You can’t just plow it under forever.
Besides, no when people ask you what your mum does, you can say she’s a garbage lady.
I think I’d rather not.
Very shortsighted of you. The way things are going, soon an “ecologic engineer” will be a top profession.
Come up with one single, efficient and safe way to get rid of trash and you will be rich and powerful.