Palermo’s historic center overwhelmed by waste from nightlife, 7,000 new bins introduced.
The historic center of Palermo is being overwhelmed by waste generated by nightlife activities, and the waste management company Rap is taking action to increase cleanliness and the number of available trash bins for residents and tourists. Today (August 30), the company’s workers began installing new collection points along the city center streets, particularly near the main squares and monuments which have recently become magnets for glass bottles, takeout food containers, and all kinds of litter. Over 7,000 bins will appear in the city center in the coming days, with an additional 6,000 planned for 2024. The popular Quattro Canti area, along with other important zones, has become a hotspot for small-scale dumping by both locals and tourists. The CEO of Rap, Giuseppe Todaro, explains that a new program has been launched to clean the historic center and coastal areas. Alongside the new collection points, new high-pressure cleaners and Glutton machines (which vacuum up trash from the ground) will be deployed to allow for more thorough street cleaning. Todaro adds that the new machines will complement the existing mechanical street sweeping service, which had previously been lacking in the city center. The efforts will initially focus on Mondello, Sferracavallo, and the historic center, with plans to expand mechanized street sweeping citywide. Rap’s president also touches on the controversy surrounding the Palermo differenzia project launched in 2013. The project aimed to establish separate waste collection, including in the city’s suburbs, by 2025. However, the Sperone neighborhood was recently excluded to prioritize coastal areas. While residents had already been provided with containers for door-to-door collection, the decision has now shifted towards proximity collection. Todaro acknowledges that he personally disagrees with this change, but it is influenced by a previous program funded by European grants that heavily dictates their choices. He emphasizes the need for greater civic consciousness among citizens and highlights the dramatic increase in littering, with 20 million kilograms of waste now being collected compared to the previous two million.
Il centro storico di Palermo invaso dai rifiuti della movida, arrivano 7mila nuovi cestini
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