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 wonderful and useful "Letters" column published in the city news section of the Corriere della Sera. In my case, as a Roman citizen, the column is written by journalist Paolo Conti, who collects, with great professional rigor, the outbursts and protests of the capital's residents , and beyond. A citizen, Francesco Allori, writes and tells of a small street, centrally located and not in the obscure outskirts of Rome, virtually occupied by a double mattress . An uncivilized person abandoned it in this manner. And it matters little 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

In Rome , it's a widespread habit. It affects residents of every neighborhood, from the luxurious Parioli to the ultra-popular Pigneto and Garbatella, through the areas around the Tiber, to public parks , to preschools . In short, there's someone everywhere, not just a small minority of uncivilized people, who continues to treat the streets, any street, as open-air dumps. Places where, in addition to traditional waste, you can also safely abandon refrigerators , sofas , armchairs , clotheslines , small appliances , and furniture we're replacing. A sort of "I'll throw it all away" policy, and who cares about the others. A waste that affects all citizens and contributes not only to the dirtiest and most polluted capital in Europe, but also helps drive the garbage collection company and the municipality itself into bankruptcy.

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Street waste in Italian cities

Rome , small consolation, in this case is not the only black sheep in a class of white sheep cities. Refrigerator gangs are very strong in Sicily , where they manage to dump dismantled refrigerators even in the middle of La Favorita Park in the center of Palermo; in 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 and discarded in open-air landfills. Then there are us, citizens with zero civic sense, capable of abandoning any piece of furniture or household goods in the street, on the sidewalk, in a children's park, or in a public garden, lending a hand to the criminals.

The company, if we look at the entire country, is quite crowded. In the very civilized city of Turin , the municipal administration has done its homework, informing its citizens (but can anyone who uses the streets as an illegal dump be considered a citizen?) that to recover and dispose of refrigerators, sofas, and various other furniture abandoned on the streets, 3,8 million euros must be spent each year . This money, yet another waste, with the municipal coffers always short, must then be found by cutting other services, such as care for the elderly or daycare for the children of working mothers who aren't wealthy or well-off. Hence the appeals and fines, with those photos of Corso Vercelli, a single street in the Piedmontese capital, where there are twelve dumping sites for the "I throw it all away" garbage. In Florence , a man was caught red-handed, and the whole thing was resolved with a paltry fine. He was found guilty of abandoning tables, chairs, counters, and even some old, unusable window frames on a sidewalk, as if they were scented flowers. In the Senigallia area , along a road that leads from the town of Trecastelli to a wonderful beach , the "Io buttotutto" 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 here? There's a large shopping center in this area, and so many customers who go to replace their 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 littering? Unfortunately, not. The time has come to taunt, as we once did with unruly children, our neighbors or neighbors who consider our streets a dumping ground for "I throw everything 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 everything away" club. Throwing this type of waste on the street, or abandoning it along a river or in a public park, is not only uncivilized: it's insane.

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

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