Rome: Drowning in rubbish
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2019
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Italian capital is in the midst of a waste management crisis as mountains of uncollected rubbish are left to rot on the eternal city's streets. Manuela Saragosa hears from disgruntled residents and the war of words between those who say the blame lies with the anti-establishment mayor, Virginia Raggi of the Five Star Movement party, and the mayor's supporters, who argue Rome's rubbish crisis has its roots in an historically corrupt and inefficient waste disposal system. We hear from Massimiliano Tonelli, founder of the Roma Fa Schifo blog, Marco Cacciatore, the Five Star Movement city council alderman responsible for Rome's waste management, and Mr. Cacciatore's counterpart, Massimiliano Valeriani, at the Lazio regional government. Will Rome's recurring rubbish crisis ever be resolved?
(Picture: Waste overflows on the street in the Tor Sapienza neighborhood, on June 30, 2019 in Rome, Italy. Picture credit: Simona Granati - Corbis/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC with me, Manuel Saragossa. |
| 0:07.6 | In this edition, welcome to Rome, the dirty streets of Rome. |
| 0:12.5 | I want to get out here because it's impossible. It's a dirty city. I'm softer because I love this city. |
| 0:19.7 | Who picks up your rubbish shouldn't be a political issue, but this is Italy. |
| 0:24.6 | And some see in the capital's rubbish crisis a metaphor for the way the country works. |
| 0:29.6 | We have a big problem on our hands in Rome. |
| 0:32.2 | We need to get over the cynicism of a lot of the residents. |
| 0:34.8 | And the local Rome government needs to take its responsibility seriously, |
| 0:38.2 | because whoever governs shouldn't just worry about what happens today, but also what's going to be |
| 0:42.6 | happening 10 years from now. Why Rome's rubbish crisis won't be going away anytime soon? That's |
| 0:48.3 | coming up here in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:03.7 | We've just walked down a residential area of Rome, |
| 1:06.7 | and we're standing now in front of some big bins. |
| 1:07.9 | And it's shocking. |
| 1:09.9 | I mean, it's absolutely piled. |
| 1:13.2 | Waste high with discarded plastic bags full of rubbish. |
| 1:15.2 | Clearly, it's not been collected in a while. |
| 1:16.5 | It absolutely reeks. |
| 1:17.6 | It's really stinky. |
| 1:20.7 | And earlier we could hear the seagulls circulating. |
| 1:22.7 | You know, they come and feed off the thing. |
| 1:24.3 | And then this is a residential area. |
... |
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