Littering the streets: it's a crime, and it's our own fault.

No excuses: looking at the images coming from many Italian cities, both North and South, the incivility of the abandoned sofa is still rampant. And there's no excuse.

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waste on the street

Since October 2023, littering in the streets has become a criminal offense, applicable not only to businesses and organizations but also to individuals. The fine ranges from €1,000 to €10.000, doubled for hazardous waste. This harmful and uncivilized act knows no bounds: in Palermo, 120,000 items of bulky waste are dumped every year, and in Bologna, the image on the cover of this article was taken by the mayor, Matteo Lepore.

I always read a nice and useful Letters Column published in the city news pages of the Corriere della Sera: in my case as a Roman citizen, the column is signed by the journalist Paolo Conti, who collects, with great professional rigor, outbursts and protests of inhabitants of the capital, and not only. A citizen, signing himself Francesco Allori, writes and tells of a small street, central and not in the obscurity of the Roman suburbs, in fact occupied by a double mattress and a uncivilized He abandoned it like this. And it doesn't matter if, next to the mattress, the dumpsters are overflowing with cardboard and other waste material.

The interesting thing is that the reader proposes, in order to block the "criminal behaviour" of unscrupulous transporters, charged with collecting the old mattress or the old kitchen to deliver the new one, the obligation of mark the mattresses with the address of the place where it was collected. This way, Mr. Allori writes, it's easy to trace who took charge of the mattress for disposal. The proposal is interesting, as by making clear and known the origin of mattresses, refrigerators, sofas, armchairs, kitchens, abandoned right next to the rubbish bins, it could be possible fine the truck drivers, both large and small, who sign this outrage that steadily goes unpunished. Only to save money, since in Rome, as in all Italian cities, there are recycling centers where such bulky and harmful waste, if left on the street, is disposed of. Unfortunately, alongside irresponsible truck drivers, there are also many, far too many, unscrupulous citizens, or small gangs of spare parts traffickersThe news is full of disturbing episodes on this subject, and not only in Rome, but also in other large Italian cities, including the North.
The offender, a 47-year-old AR man, was caught red-handed. Reported at liberty, he will get away with no prison time or fine. Yet, environmental crime that he was committing, is of enormous gravity: he unloaded refrigerators in the parks, in Romanina and Anagnina, two working-class neighborhoods of the capital, after dismantling them to sell the spare parts on the black market. At least fifty refrigerators were recovered.
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(Image source: Roma Today)
AR is not an isolated criminal. His activity is probably part of an organization specializing in this type of activity. illegal disposal. With two important revenue streams: on the one hand, the money collected to get rid of the refrigerator, on the other, the revenue from the sale of spare parts. These gangs in Rome often operate undisturbed and place their refrigerators everywhere, even along the banks of the Tiber. Or in what in Tivoli is called the Frigo Valley, 70 hectares of open-air land, a gigantic illegal dump for household appliances, primarily refrigerators. A short distance from one of Italy's most important spas (the famous Terme di Bagni di Tivoli) and the ancient villas visited daily by thousands of tourists.
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(Image source: Repubblica)

Rubbish on the streets of Rome

A Rome It's a common habit. It affects the population of all neighborhoods, from the luxurious Parioli to the super popular Pigneto and Garbatella, passing through the areas around the Tiber, to the public parks, schools for children. In short, there is someone everywhere, not a small minority of uncivilized people, who continues to consider the streets, any street, as open-air landfills. Places where, aside from traditional waste, you can also safely abandon refrigerators, sofas, armchairs, stendini, mini appliances, furnishings that we're replacing. A sort of "I'll throw it all away" and who cares about the others. A waste that affects all citizens and contributes not only to the dirtiest and most polluted capital city in Europe, but also contributes to the bankruptcy of the garbage collection company and the municipality itself.

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Street waste in Italian cities

Rome, small consolation, in this case he's not the only black sheep in a class of city white sheep. The refrigerator bands are very strong in Sicilia, where they manage to throw away dismantled refrigerators even in the middle of La Favorita Park in the centre of Palermo; Emilia Romagna, where waste of this kind is piled up in the central streets of Piacenza; in Campania, with illegal trafficking of used electrical and electronic appliances discarded in open-air landfills. Then, lending a hand to the criminals, we, citizens with zero civic sense, are capable of abandoning any piece of furniture or household goods on the street, on the sidewalk, in a children's park, or in a public garden.

The company, if we look at the whole country, is very crowded. In the very civilized Turin, the municipal administration has done the math, pointing out to its citizens (but can those who use the road as an illegal dump be considered citizens?) that to recover and dispose of refrigerators, sofas and various furniture abandoned on the street, they have to spend every year 3,8 million euroMoney that then, once again a waste, with the municipal coffers always short, must be found by cutting other services, such as assistance to elderly or asili for the less wealthy and well-off children of working mothers. Hence the appeals and fines, with those photos of Corso Vercelli, a single street in the Piedmontese capital, where there are twelve dumping points for the "I throw it all away" trash. Florence, a gentleman was caught red-handed, and everything was resolved with a paltry fine, because, on the part of a shopkeeper determined to close his shop, he abandoned on a sidewalk, as if they were scented flowers, tables, chairs, counters and even some old, no longer usable window frames. In the area of Senigallia, along a road that from the municipality of Trecastelli leads to a wonderful beachThe "I throw everything away" landfill has become gigantic, and anyone unfortunate enough to come across it immediately loses the desire to go all the way to the sea. Why exactly here? There's a large shopping center in this area, so many customers who go to replace appliances or bedroom furniture think it's a good idea to leave their souvenirs—old stuff—on the sidewalk. And who cares about the disfigured sea, the tourism going haywire, the pollution devouring us.

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Fines for littering on the street

But is a barrage of fines and reports, along with a hunt for uncivilized people, enough to stop the phenomenon of street litter? Unfortunately, not. The time has come to take our litter by the ears, as we once did with unruly children. neighbour Or a neighborhood that considers our street a dumping ground for "I throw it all away." And the time has come, once again, to look in the mirror, and perhaps seek out a good therapist or neurologist to treat the members of the crowded "I throw it all away" club. Throwing this kind of waste on the street, or abandoning it along a river or in a public park, isn't just uncivilized: it's demented.

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(Cover image source: Matteo Lepore's Facebook page)

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