Home : Statistics of the Month : Garbage piling up in the streets of Naples
|
Naples' trash emergency
- 5 tons of garbage is produced every minute
"Do you know how I measure my time in Naples? In tons. Every minute I waste, 5 more tons on the disaster" says Gianni De Gennaro, the latest trash emergency commissioner. In Naples' region Campania, 7,200 tons of trash is produced every day. This is added to the 250,000 tons on the streets or on parked trucks. "Those 7,200 tons per day" De Gennaro says "are exactly equivalent to 5 tons per minute."
- 250,000 tons of rotting garbage is piled up in the streets of Naples already
Rubbish dumps in the Naples area are full, and local communities block efforts to build new ones or create temporary storage sites.
- 14 years of emergency
Naples has failed to solve a problem that was first recognized as being an emergency 14 years ago.
- 7 "Trash Tsars" appointed to solve the crisis
Italy has spent 2 billion Euros and appointed seven successive trash emergency commissioners to solve the waste emergency. De Gennaro is the one currently in charge.
- No solution in sight
Political ineptitude, corruption and crime (the industrial waste disposal business from Italy's rich north earns the local mafia an estimated 6 billion euros a year) have conspired to stop the creation of a safe disposal system. People despair of their politicians and are suspicious of government schemes.
- EU deadline has expired on February 29, 2008.
On February 29, 2008, the strict deadline set by at the beginning of that same month by the European Union to deal with the waste crisis has expired.
- Shipments of trash to other regions
Six protesters were arrested in Sardinia after a night of clashes with Italian police over trash shipped to the Mediterranean island from Naples to ease a garbage crisis there. Other trash is being sold and sent to Germany.
- Death and disease
Local cancer rates are well above the national average. Leaky dumps brimming with illegal toxic waste are contaminating the air and water.
- Data sources and methods
Worldometers relies on the official Italian Government data for its counter. According to De Gennaro, as of January 14, 2008, there were 250,000 tons of trash in the streets. A week later, 35,000 had been collected (APcom, in Italian) while an estimated 50,400 more tons of garbage was produced, making it 2,200 tons of additional trash per day (or over 25 Kg per second) piling on the streets of Naples and the surrounding area during the third week of January 2008.
Worldometers continues to monitor the developing story. We are constantly updating the counter total and the rate of increase as new data becomes available.
References and useful links:
|
|
