"Garbage Day" protest in Naples as rubbish piles up

Protesters turned out in Italy's southern city of Naples on Saturday for "Garbage Day" demonstrations against growing piles of rubbish littering the streets, and called for a new waste recycling scheme. Protesters in brightly coloured "death masks" bearing the slogan "those who burn waste, burn lives" threw fake garbage bags through the streets in protest at the malodorous mounds of waste, rotting in the sun as temperatures rise. The "Citizens of Campagna Project" called for a door-to-door recycling scheme as the Campagna region struggled to resolve the ongoing garbage problem, despite warnings of heavy fines from the European Commission last November. But Naples' hygiene assessor Paolo Giacomelli said they did not have the funds to pay for such a project. "I believe in this protest but the figures speak for themselves. The council would have to spend 20 million euros (29 million dollars) for such a scheme. And the money isn't there," he said, La Repubblica daily reported. Protesters carted through the streets a large cardboard tiered cake with 17 candles on top -- one for every year of the crisis -- and a fake incinerator that spewed out toxic gases in the form of white balloons. There are currently 3,500 tons of garbage littering the region, with 1,650 in the city centre, according to Italian media. Fire fighters have been called out increasingly frequently over the last week to put out rubbish fires. The ongoing garbage crisis flared up last November when regional dumps were closed after fierce protests from local residents. An EU team of inspectors travelled to the garbage-strewn city at the time and urged Italy to implement a waste disposal plan drawn up after the country was found to be in breach of EU legislation in March 2010.