This project, along with The Present Future, represents the reality of Reggio Calabria, my hometown in southern Italy.
"Don't dump or throw away waste"
This is how this story begins, with a demand that should not even exist. A ban that is also a plea, something that would be beyond all logic in a civilised place.
This is how this story begins, with a demand that should not even exist. A ban that is also a plea, something that would be beyond all logic in a civilised place.
The 2019 recycling collection calendar.
With almost 180.000 inhabitants, Reggio Calabria is the largest and the most populated city of Calabria, a region in southern Italy.
In 2014, in an attempt to comply with Italian laws on waste disposal, it was introduced a door-to-door separate collection named DifferenziAMOla.
In 2014, in an attempt to comply with Italian laws on waste disposal, it was introduced a door-to-door separate collection named DifferenziAMOla.
Bags of organic waste piled up in front of a doorway, not collected for a month. It is not uncommon to find messages, such as this one begging the rubbish collectors to pick up the bags.
"Let’s not be uncivilized! Let’s not throw garbage on the street!”
From 2012 to 2021 the local tax evasion rate increased from about 54% to 84%. More than 150.000 citizens do not pay taxes, including waste taxes. Every single one of this people throws his own trash around the city every day.
Single abandoned bags, they can be found almost anywhere throughout the city.
The three dumpsters 100 metres from my house and a portait of my wife and my son.
The tybe of garbage abandoned includes bulky items, construction material, hospital and toxic waste, asbestos sheets.
A wrecked and burned car, abandoned on the street.
Piles of waste of all kinds are burned almost weekly, causing immense environmental damage and poisoning thousands of people.
Mr. D., a cancer patient, while cleaning on his own initiative a supermarket parking lot, closed to the public because it has become a dump.
“Keep the environment clean thanks”
The AVR is the holding company that deals wit waste collection in Reggio Calabria and six other Italian regions, where it also deals with maintenance, waste disposal and decontamination. In June 2020 it was placed under seizure by mafia association and came under judicial administration.
Mr. Crucitti in front of his front door and with his wife, demonstrating in front of the Prefect and the City Council, threatening to go on hunger strike. Because of their efforts to solve the garbage problem, they have suffered retaliations in their neighborhood.
The dumpsters used before the introduction of door-to-door separate waste collection, piled up in the courtyard of the city's only incinerator. Built and operated by a German company between the 60s and 70s, it was closed and abandoned following retaliation and threats by the gangs that managed the transport of waste to external collection and storage centers.
A demonstration against the general degradation of the city in front of the Prefect and the City Council. Waste emergency, lack of water, contaminated water, untreated sewers discharged into the sea, bad roads, abandoned buildings, stray dogs, these are just some of the issues addressed. Public participation at these types of events is always very low.
“Swines this is not a landfill”
Almost all of the approved landfills in Calabria are currently closed or full. Despite the periodic extraordinary cleaning operations around the city, the volume of illegally abandoned waste is so large that in fact the big masses are never eliminated.
The parking lot of the municipal cemetery, the largest landfill near the city center. Mr. M. pose in front of his hut built from garbage recovered parts, where he has been living for two years along with his three dogs.
The "Hill of the Angels" is a huge pile of garbage and toxic waste which has now become a real plateau. Illegally created between the 60s and 90s by local gangs, accumulating waste coming from Italy and other countries, it still releases hazardous sewage. The incidence of cancer and leukemia among the citizens living in the area is very high.
A stray at the entrance of the road that crosses the fiumara Menga. Like many other rivers in the area this is now an open dump. A detail of the road, now practically paved with waste.
An underpass under the airport runway, closed to traffic to prevent it from becoming a landfill.
No politician in office has ever done anything to identify tax evaders, which represent the vast majority of the electorate. The paradoxical consequence is that the cost of waste tax in Reggio Calabria is among the highest in Italy.
These images were taken between 2019 and 2021. To this day the city's situation has remained substantially unchanged. The aim of this work is to show the stages of the administrative and social failure of Reggio Calabria, marking it with the voices and the faces of those who have been suffering this surreal reality for too many years.