“RUBBISH ADDICTION”

Waste recycling is the process of converting waste into reusable materials. Recycling is a comparatively recent introduction of practice, born in industrialized countries around the fifties to meet the needs of economic and ecological: first, in fact, is an intelligent system of waste disposal and a way to reduce energy consumption and costs of industries, secondly, it is a way forward to save the planet's natural resources. From the ecological point of view, is the most advantageous alternative to conventional waste disposal (accumulation in landfills and incineration at specific installations), which in addition to no longer be sufficient to dispose of the ever increasing burden of waste products, have an impact environmental non-negligible. If we avoid throwing the bulk glass, metal, plastics and paper we use every day, but places them in bins, we can recycle them and use them again. This will help to conserve Earth's natural resources. Recycling reduces drastically the amount of waste, air and water pollution and saves energy Over the past years we have seen in Italy (as in almost all of Europe), the production of waste, been gradually increasing until doubled in the past.

…but when something goes wrong what may happen? Naples -Italy From Cafebabel.com, article by G. Finotti, 15/02/08: “Italy is once again in a difficult position; the EU has issued an ultimatum: from 31 January 09 the country will have a month in which to resolve its situation, otherwise the matter will be handled directly by the European Court of Justice.

‘The situation in Campania (the Italian region of which Naples is the capital city), is intolerable and I can understand the frustration of its citizens,’ declares the European environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas. ‘It’s absolutely necessary that the Italian authorities adopt adequate measures, as they are already doing, to solve the problem, and that they should build the necessary infrastructure to put an end to this situation which has dragged on for over ten years.’ In fact, the ‘crisis’ in the processing of refuse in Campania began in The region approved a rather ambitious refuse processing plan which did not envisage dumping or recycling. Rubbish would be converted into energy, thanks to a system of waste-to-energy technologies (WtE, incinerators which convert heat into energy). Refuse began to be stored in eco-bales (a process prior to incineration), but people started to complain because of the plants’ ecological and environmental effects. The processing plants had not been activated yet, whilst at the same time, the old dumps were being closed down.”

Now the tragic situation has been solved and hopefully the city will regain its original splendour, with its stupendous bay and harbour