‘Garbage Day’ demonstration in Naples as rubbish piles up

AFP/Naples

A protester throws fake garbage bags during a ‘Day of Shame’ protest yesterday against the waste crisis in Naples. The Campagna region has been struggling with an ongoing rubbish crisis for years, with critics pointing to government mismanagement and corruption as well as the infiltration of the Camorra, the local mafia

Protesters turned out in Italy’s southern city of Naples yesterday for “Garbage Day” demonstrations against growing piles of rubbish littering the streets, and called for a new waste recycling scheme.Protesters in brightly coloured “death masks” bearing the slogan “those who burn waste, burn lives” threw fake garbage bags through the streets in protest at the malodorous mounds of waste, rotting in the sun as temperatures rise.The “Citizens of Campagna Project” called for a door-to-door recycling scheme as the Campagna region struggled to resolve the ongoing garbage problem, despite warnings of heavy fines from the European Commission last November.But Naples’ hygiene assessor Paolo Giacomelli said that they did not have the funds to pay for such a project.There are currently 3,500 tonnes of garbage littering the region, with 1,650 in the city centre, according to Italian media.Firefighters have been called out increasingly frequently over the last week to put out rubbish fires.The ongoing garbage crisis flared up last November when regional dumps were closed after fierce protests from locals.