| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Aeolienne |
The Naples rubbish mountains: anyone know the latest?Back in July Peter Popham of the Independent on Sunday reported that Silvio Berlusconi had solved the problem with refuse collection in Naples. However the Foreign Office's travel advice for Italy indicates that this is still a problem. Does anyone know what's really happening? My Italian isn't good enough to look up the latest news on Greenpeace.it or Amici della Terra...The week began with strangely boring photographs on the front pages of the one or two newspapers which are friendly to Mr Berlusconi. The pictures showed the Naples shoreline: apartment blocks, the bay, the fort in the distance, a few cars and pedestrians. The point about the picture was what it did not contain: rubbish mountains. Naples has been struggling for years to find a solution to the most elemental challenge of all: what to do with waste. Earlier initiatives generated new problems when the offices of the special commissioners appointed to sort things out turned into money-spinning rackets. On the campaign trail Berlusconi promised that, if elected, he would hold his first cabinet meeting in the city, and dedicate himself to finding a lasting solution. We didn't believe him: Mr Berlusconi didn't do solutions to real-world ills. But we were wrong. Back in power with a crushing majority, he rolled into Naples and threatened to crack the whip. He promised to clear the city's streets of rubbish by the end of July, enforcing the re-opening of landfill sites with the army if necessary, and mandating the urgent construction of new hi-tech incinerators. The week before last, he pronounced those fateful words, "mission accomplished". And it was apparently true. The papers that disdain him buried the news well inside. Others spoke of the rubbish being swept under the carpet, of the problem being dispersed to remote parts of the province, of the rubbish being exported to Germany. In the short term at least it didn't really matter: Naples was presentable. Mr Berlusconi declared that Naples was "now a civilised city of the West once again." Peter Popham, 'The padrone is back and he means business', 27 July 2008 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/silvio-berlusconi-the-padrone-is-back-and-he-means-business-878282.html The refuse disposal crisis in Naples has worsened again since the weekend of 10-11 May. Daily rubbish collection is not taking place and there are currently piles of uncollected rubbish in the streets both in the suburbs and in the city centre itself. The situation in the main tourist areas and holiday resorts such as the Amalfi coast and the Sorrento peninsula remains normal. Last updated 28 August 2008 http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and-living-overseas/travel-advice-by-country/europe/italy |
| yummersetter |
on BBC radio 4 at 5 o'clock today was a programme called 'The Italian Patient' which I think referred to this, but sadly it was in one ear and out the other here - if I'd known questions would be asked later I'd have listened and learned 
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| tinyclanger |
Hi,
4 incinerators are to be built, mafia bosses have been jailed.... http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15016 |
| Aeolienne |
Will we see any of our own British anti-incinerator campaigners making the journey to Naples?
E.g. http://www.eclipse.co.uk/exeter/burner/index.htm http://www.no-incinerator.org.uk/ http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste/press_for_change/expansion_incineration.html etc. |
| Aeolienne |
Or if anyone fancies un po' di practica italiana...
Rifiuti - Il Caso Campania http://www.amicidellaterra.it/adt/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=10&Itemid=216 |