waste crisis

[iggy]

I was just came across this today on Facebook, looks like all hell has broken loose in Scalea,
emergenza rifiufi rivolta a scalea - YouTube
Just wondering if anyone has any ideas?

[fifi]

Interesting viewing and if I ever meet the mayor I will give him a good talking to the money this town is pulling in at the moment and the filth and stray cats and dogs is like nothing I have ever seen except on tv I am a present trying to find an address to email his office, it's just not good enough this day and age so if anyone knows where I can contact him let me know. I might say I never have a moan but it is so bad here I can't even sit on the beach with the kids and stray dogs everywhere what is going on? X fifi

[Andy&Kath]

We arrived Wednesday evening and were shocked to see piles of overflowing rubbish around the bins in our road Viale Primo Maggio (the road running down from the train station). Noticed that the bins by the Spar were completely clear Thursday morning and Thursday evening they closed our road whilst a large grabber lorry cleared all the rubbish. Obviously it should never have been allowed to get to this stage but at least (whether through pressure being applied or not) they have now acted and cleared the mess. I assume the lorry , or others like it, were repeating the process around town??

Andy

[brynithel3]

Hi Fifi

We haven't seen each other for a couple of years. Hope you are well.

Here is a site that will allow you to contact the Major directly.

Amministrazione Comunale - comune.scalea.cs.it

Ciao

John

[MarKel]

We left Scalea on Wednesday 10th August, and the rubbish had not been collected for about four days by then. Someone told me that the refuse collectors were on strike.They certainly picked the most effective time to make their point.
I had thought that the dog problem wasn't quite so bad in the Petrosa area this summer, compared with Easter when there were packs of them around.
I concluded that the "powers that be " must have rounded up some of them.
But now it seems they may have just moved to the beach!
I hope the weather is still wonderful over there - we have had plenty of rain here in Ireland since I returned, and the weather in parts of Britain is even worse.
Regards to all,
Markel

[fifi]

Hi John myself and family are all good thank you, I will contact him, I have seen him on ditterent tv sites going on about scalea and how great it is and for sure I do love it but there is a problem with waste and dogs and cats saw 2 dead dogs on the road and a cat on it's last legs this am and the loads of ticket wardens pulling in huge money and a lone sweeper with an excuse of a brush Maybe with enough moans to his office he might look at improving these situations x fifi

[claire tudge]

Good luck with contacting the mayor its time they did something for the poor animals there, have started seeing stray cats and dogs at Parco flora this year, something Ive never noticed before.

[Richtea]

The residents of Scalea must be similarly fed up. Whilst we were in Scalea 'til 15th Aug it was quite hap hazard collecting however one point sticks in my head and why this shouldnt be allowed to happen: We were at our bill paying company and asking why this year's rubbish bill had doubled in price from 40 euros to 80 pa. Apparently, everyone is now paying by the square foot and we had got off lightly with our miniscule appt. The agency we deal with talked about their parents now paying 700 (yes seven hundred!) euros per year due to them having a house with quite a bit of square feet!!! As I say no wonder the residents are unhappy, particularly with the amount of money now going into the coffers....

[Italy4me]

Here's some words from the mayor - and apparently there are thoughts that there may have been sabotage involved!
Si lavora per superare l'emergenza dello stazionamento dei rifiuti. Assicura il sindaco Basile

Apparently from September there is to be door to door refuse collection in the middle of town.

Santa Domenica Talao already have this - along with certain days for certain types of refuse and a bar code system so that you will be billed on the amount of waste you have taken away.

I think that is how it works anyway, but maybe a native of SDT could confirm if this is the case?

[annetigano]

I would be very worried with a bar code waste collection system in the centre of town because I think that the surrounding areas would suffer because those on the barcode system would surely dump their rubbish out of town (i.e in our area of Petrosa). They must surely have to implement the system for the whole of Scalea. If my Italian in up to it I will try to send my comments to the Mayor. Does anyone know if they take any notice of comments if they are sent in English?

[Dermot Brophy]

Ciao, tutti!

Having left San Nicola on July 25, I wasn't aware of this alarming development of accumulating rubbish. Let's hope it doesn't become another Naples!

I have one comment, however.

I find the Italians are totally selfish when it comes to the triage of rubbish. Look into the bins labeled "Carta", "Plastico" "Organico" etc, and you will see what I mean. You'll see all sorts and sizes of rubbish tossed in with no regard whatever for the attempts the Municipio makes to seperate for recycling, etc.

I am particularly exercised by this matter, because here in Ireland the situation is every bit as bad, so I live in a pretty constant state of rather futile outrage!!!

Sorry if I sound like Victor Meldrew, but there it is!

Dermot

[uakelly]

Have just returned from a four week stay in Scalea. Despite all our hopes that the commune had taken the bullet and was sorting the problems in the resort, we found this August really strange. In Feb all the rubbish sites were cleared up and pristine, extra bins everywhere including Petrosa where the rubbish has never been great in August. Anyway at the start of August bins disappeared, then for a few days nothing was lifted. Bin lorries were seen to drive past the rubbish, Not sure if by this stage they couldn't get at the bins. Anyway to cut the story short they then were on catch up. Things became so disgusting that huge lorries with containers were brought in and cleared up but always on catch up! Remember this was over the 15th Aug weekend. As there were a lot of fires this summer we were afraid someone would then try to set fire to this rubbish. For once we could not blame the visitors just throwing rubbish at the bins , it was the commune failure. It did seem to be organised chaos but friends from Turin told us that the landfill, dump at SDT road was full and had been closed and that waste was going to Catanzaro. For the first time ever, rubbish we had previously experienced in Petrosa was everywhere including the beach road car parks, When we left areas around us were cleared but the best thing we saw were people around the dumping areas taking responsibility. Clearing up residue and stopping holiday makers from ?where throwing thier rubbish at the area so maybe this will be a catalyst. We are fully in support of any move to contact the mayor/EU and intended to take a photo of the pile up near us but they cleared it out of the blue. NB to anyone who didn't see it, the roads were closed for ages by the clean up operation. Finally, to the SDT residents sympathy for the fires this summer. It was very close! We watched planes in PMare and then south, and a scary night when the wind was up and they circled the village. A hot and dry summer not helped by inefficiency? poor organisation? or organised crime! However still love the place. Dogs have always been our moan and this summer they were ok!
Don't intend to moan but just trying to fill in for those who didn't see it. Would fully support rep to mayor!

[uakelly]

This is interesting!

Proteste operai geo ambiente - YouTube

Still a beautiful place!

[annetigano]

I wrote to the mayor in my very best Italian and this was his reply which was very prompt:

Le assicuro che entro ottobre partirà la raccolta differenziata (con barcode) nel centro e sarà anche completamente rivista la raccolta nei parchi, soprattutto grandi.
Le prometto che quello che è successo quest'anno, e Le assicuro che non è colpa nostra e che ha colpito molti comuni della Calabria, non si ripeterà più

Basically in the centre of Scalea from October there will be collection with barcodes and the collections in other areas will be completely revised.
He promises that this year's problems were not their fault and will not be repeated.

[falcon]

Originally Posted by fifi

Interesting viewing and if I ever meet the mayor I will give him a good talking to the money this town is pulling in at the moment and the filth and stray cats and dogs is like nothing I have ever seen except on tv I am a present trying to find an address to email his office, it's just not good enough this day and age so if anyone knows where I can contact him let me know. I might say I never have a moan but it is so bad here I can't even sit on the beach with the kids and stray dogs everywhere what is going on? X fifi

Hello ,

To write to the mayor, go to this link on their website. May I suggest that we formulate one nice letter and each of us and everybody else we know send them all together to make a bit of noise. My experience writing to officialdom in Italy is not good, emails are unanswered but maybe if we all make one big fuss and send a copy to radio one scalea might make some inroads. I will be happy to co-ordinate the campaign as long as it is in the next few days. We are due in Scalea around the 2nd week in Sept. travelling in our MH from England but might wait a bit longer to give time for the cleanup. It looks absolutely awful.

Francis

[falcon]

Originally Posted by falcon

Hello ,

To write to the mayor, go to this link on their website. May I suggest that we formulate one nice letter and each of us and everybody else we know send them all together to make a bit of noise. My experience writing to officialdom in Italy is not good, emails are unanswered but maybe if we all make one big fuss and send a copy to radio one scalea might make some inroads. I will be happy to co-ordinate the campaign as long as it is in the next few days. We are due in Scalea around the 2nd week in Sept. travelling in our MH from England but might wait a bit longer to give time for the cleanup. It looks absolutely awful.

Francis

SORRY never put the link in!

Pasquale Basile - comune.scalea.cs.it

[annetigano]

I wrote to the mayor (as above) on a Friday and got a response on Monday morning. I think that is good by any standard.
Rubbish has always been a problem in Italy, not just Scalea. Let's see how the new mode of operation goes when it starts in October before we jump on our high horses.
This mayor is doing plenty to improve Scalea and everything takes time.
..... and remember we all chose to buy property there - if people want things as they are in the UK then why buy in Italy?

[Doug]

We've watched this and there seems to be a new company with new trucks doing the pickups, but they were not prepared or warned that in August the amount of rubbish triples with the holiday home users. Last year was similar in that in wasn't until about the 2nd week of Sept that all the extra trash was removed.

There is a national change in types of bags (this is EU-driven) and types of removal services. Small towns like our's were easier to switch, tho Tropea was making the transition last winter. Here, there is now door-to-door collections with each day having a different type of rubbish picked up. You label each bag with a bar code referenced to your codice fiscale so that your billings will be based on trash you actually create. I question door-to-door is possible in Scalea with the apartment buildings, but maybe each building will have a location for residents to place their bags?? More complicated and the comune will likely have details in October as the sindaco mentioned. It was not a painful change for us. Regardless, Scalea needs to make special concessions just for August to account for the additional amounts of refuse.

I had not heard about the landfill closing, but knew it was proposed. No more habitat for the seagulls!!

[uakelly]

Firstly,can I say that if you have never been in the resort in August, you are very lucky not to experience the waste crisis. Our friends and others left at the end of July when it was a manageable struggle but have no idea what it was like after 6th August.
There is next to no opportunity to recycle. This is a big part of the problem. Then there are not enough bins. Surely all this would in the end be cheaper than the clean up op we saw.
It has to be a health hazard in August in that heat. I realise the mayor is making all the right gestures now, but I think a combined supported letter from as many people from the forum would be worth a try.
It might be worth mentioning a protest to the EU. Environmentally this is worth huge fines.
I intended to take a picture of the worst disgrace near to us to aid this purpose but that was the day they cleared it up. It would be interesting to know if anyone on the forum took a picture. I know we bought into Southern Italy with all its ????????????????????? well, everything but there is no excuse for the waste management in Scalea to be worse or equal to any third world country you can imagine. Added to this was the problem that it might go on??? fire and it was highly toxic!
I keep meaning not to moan about it but unless you were there, this August you really couldn't imagine how bad it was.
As someone committed to the area and ready to accept it for what it is, This was hard.

[Doug]

Ciao,

It's only our second year living here, but I didn't think the rubbish in Scalea was worse than last summer. I think Italians are much more accepting of trash than UK or American folks. I've had many Italian friends cast their cigarette packages off to the side whilst I was there. They accept littering. They accept the seasonal encroachment of trash bags onto the streets and the smell. The overflowing piles of rubbish will go away in the next few weeks. The reason I mention Italian acceptance is that the number of English-speaking properties in this area is maybe 0.5% of the total and our complaints may be heard, but not given a whole lot of weight. The current Scalea administration is in the Berlosconi camp of politics which does not favour caring for people and their wants....especially stranieri.

The new barcode system makes sense to me because we produce more rubbish than our Italian neighbors just because we are Americans buying things instead of canning vegetables, etc. We're very willing to pay for the refuse we produce. The down side to you Scalea folks is that if that if the comune invokes this system, they will collect LESS revenue from the holiday home people (without some sort of minimum fee), so their revenues for collecting rubbish might go down and then, they will be even less able to cope with the August trash.

My rubbish rumblings for the day. It is still a gorgeous place to spend time don't you think? Oops, there is smoke in the air and a fire visible in Petrosa. Summer life goes on. dj