In 2005 Rome residents produced an average of 693 kg of rubbish per person, according to national environment agency APAT (agenzia per la protezione dell‘‘ambiente e per i servizi tecnici). In the same year Italy as a whole generated 31.7 million tonnes of waste, 1.6 million more than in 2003. The Italian government has set a recycling target of 40 per cent of all rubbish produced by the end of 2007, 50 per cent by the end of 2009 and 60 per cent by the end of 2011. However the country is at present recycling only 24 per cent of its garbage, and Italy‘‘s capital is certainly not setting an example, recycling only 15 per cent of its waste a year.

APAT reports that in 2005 the Lazio region recycled only 200 g of waste per inhabitant per day against 1.56 kg of rubbish produced. The same year Rome‘‘s city council introduced a law that made differentiated waste disposal compulsory, with fines ranging from EUR50-300 for those failing to comply. There is also a fine of between EUR25-620 for those who leave their rubbish outside rubbish bins. However, in practice the laws are seldom enforced.

The Rome city council and the Agenzia Municipale Ambientale (AMA), which is responsible for the city‘‘s rubbish collection, has embarked on a number of projects to encourage the public to recycle. Among the initiatives are electronic waste collection Sundays, when the public can bring unwanted computers, televisions, hi-fis, mobile telephones and other electrical and electronic items to an "ecostation" in Via Vigne Nuove (Monte Sacro area). Some 400,000 citizens took part in last year‘‘s project, which resulted in over 2,000 tonnes of electronic waste being collected, with 70 per cent of it destined for recycling.

AMA and the city council are also working with 100 Conad, Todis and Coop supermarkets in the city to encourage shoppers to recycle the superfluous packaging of the items they buy with a leaflet campaign providing information on differentiated waste collection. In April, AMA started an experimental project in Saline (Ostia Antica, southern Rome) and Madonnetta (between Acilia, Casal Palocco and Axa in southern Rome) involving the door-to-door collection of organic waste (fruit, vegetables and gardening waste) which residents leave in see-through bags outside their homes every week.

AMA claims that in the first two days of the project some two tonnes of organic waste were collected and taken to the compost plant in Maccarese to be turned into fertiliser for agricultural use. In the same month another experimental door-to-door project was set up in Colli Aniene (eastern Rome), Decima (southern Rome) and Massimina (western Rome), where condominiums were supplied with bins for organic, multimaterials (glass, plastic and metal), paper and non-recyclable waste (soiled paper plates, toothpaste tubes, cigarette butts and nappies).

AMA collects the rubbish once to three times a week depending on the type of waste material. In the city centre door-to-door differentiated waste collection has increased in the last two years in Tridente, Campo de‘‘ Fiori, Trastevere, Viminale and Piazza Indipendenza, involving some 50,000 residents. Since 2006 differentiated waste collection also takes place in many food markets and restaurants in the historic centre. City mayor Walter Veltroni has recently announced a differentiated waste promotional campaign on television, radio, cinemas and buses.

AMA has also embarked on an education campaign for primary and secondary school children which aims to raise awareness through visits to waste disposal plants and the city‘‘s isole ecologiche (ecological islands). "This is not enough, " says Raniero Maggini, president of environmental agency World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Lazio. "Door-to-door waste collection should not just happen in limited areas, it should