The waste hoax: 10,000 euros to clean up landfills that return 'by magic'

Thousands of euros to rent the cameras necessary to impose sanctions, fines of hundreds of euros, and other thousands of euros to clean up the landfills that almost magically reform. It is a sort of never-ending chase in the “war” against those who improperly dispose of waste. A battle that, at the moment, the environment and public administrations are losing.

Let’s start with the numbers. In recent days, the Municipality of Agrigento had to shell out about 10,000 euros for 4 cleanup interventions of as many landfills in different areas of the city: via Imera, via Vallicaldi, via Scimè, and via Regione Siciliana. Mountains of waste accumulated for months that now the citizens are paying out of pocket and that tomorrow morning will form again.

In response to this, there is the repression activity, through the systems of “photo traps” that the Municipality rents monthly and which, yes, identify hundreds of “litterbugs” but allow for a relatively low number of fines. The reason is revealed when we open the public registry of the Free Consortium of Agrigento, which in recent days sent 14 payment requests for 900 euro fines for waste abandonment to as many Agrigento citizens. All reports were issued by the local police in 2023 and have reached the “executive” phase only 3 years later, as is customary after being processed by the competent authority on environmental violations.

If this long period of time effectively reduces the “grip” at least psychologically on the offender (who thinks he has gotten away with it for 3 years), there is then a detail that clearly emerges: these are sanctions that only concern people identified driving a vehicle whose license plate has been photographed. Therefore, those who, for example in the historic center, abandon bags on foot escape the law and may be photographed without it being possible to trace the identity of the offender.