quote:

Originally posted by Aliena:
To open up the discussion a bit further.. can anyone guess what this photo shows?

Cleveland?

quote:

Originally posted by Carole B.:
Could it possibly be the number of 'projected' storage sites required to solve the current problem in Campania?

If that is the case - then the question is "where?" You can bet that they wont be 'in the North'.... The two "B's" (Berla and Boss) would make sure of that!

It's not the number of "projected" storage sites. That was a genuine photo of ONE actual garbage storage site in Giugliano (NA).

The photo shows bales of rubbish in neat stacks.. except these stack are 20 meters high and cover 6 square kms!

This is some of the backlog of waste that Naples and Campania region has in STORAGE. This has nothing to do with the rubbish that is piling up daily on the streets - this mountain has been held in storage from way before the current crisis!!

Get a sense of scale.. look at the size of the lorries! The 'mountains' of black in the background are also rubbish.. covered over with black plastic.

But it all looks very neat and tidy doesn't it?

Here's the reality !! E' un'assoluta atrocita!

Edited to fix link.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Gil,

Man, that is one awesome load of garbage! We humans sure are a messy lot (and here I thought pigeons were bad news).

Are they planning to just leave it there? Compact it into, say, paperweights? Ship it to some hellhole in Africa?

Sure does make you stop and think.

Actually, they have struck a fantastic low cost deal and will ship it to France next week.. somewhere near Lille..

Seriously, there is nowhere else to put this stuff.. it's toxic and unsorted.. rotting away and leaching God only knows what into the land. There are 6 or 7 "state of the art" incinerators in Campania - all but one have been closed due to abusing building regulations (how many bodies per metric tonne of cement are required for a decent mix?) - so they are unsuitable to handle this waste and in fact, it would be even more dangerous to burn the rubbish there because it would produce even more toxins.

Seems the Camorra have got Berlu by the balls.

quote:

Actually, they have struck a fantastic low cost deal and will ship it to France next week.. somewhere near Lille..

FILOMENA: you're getting out just in time!

The last chapter of Roberto Saviano's book Gomorrah specifically addresses the illegal waste business in Campania. It is a highly profitable industry that literally turn garbage into gold. The plus side is that the business is much less risky than selling drugs.

I wrote a review earlier on the book Gomorrah:

http://expattalk.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/6310061972/m/2810080835

Here is a PDF version of a BusinessWeek article on the Campania environmental disater caused by the illegal dumping from several years ago, before the English mainstream media paid attention.

http://www.geocities.com/time_edge/italytoxic.pdf

Since it's hosted on a free site Geocities, there is a bandwidth limit, so if you want download it and share it here, feel free.

quote:

Originally posted by idealab:
http://www.geocities.com/time_edge/italytoxic.pdf

"This page is not available."

The following photo was taken yesterday afternoon. It's an area called Somma Vesuviana

And this one is central Naples.. also taken yesterday afternoon.