Activists from the environmental group Greenpeace on Friday recreated an electronic waste dump outside the environment ministry in protest over unlawful waste management in Italy.
''Since (Environment Minister Stefania) Prestigiacomo is playing Sleeping Beauty over the collection of electronic refuse, we have decided to bring in front of her office an example of one of the many irregular collection centres that are polluting Italy and our children's future,'' said Greenpeace Italy's pollution campaign chief Vittoria Polidori.
Greenpeace said the scene reproduced the conditions of 80% of Italian electronic waste centres, where there are ''broken computers piled up on the ground, printers, monitors that release dangerous substances into the earth, areas that have been burnt or plundered to try to get copper or silver''.
An activist dressed as Sleeping Beauty slumbered on top of the pile outside the ministry to represent Prestigiacomo, who Greenpeace said ''pretends not to see and does nothing''.
The environment group said it had been lobbying the minister since February to issue a decree requiring shops to take back old electronic goods for free when a customer buys a new product.
''We're still waiting,'' Polidori said.
According to Greenpeace's 'Hi-Tox' report into irregularities in electronic waste management in Italy, more than 40% of collection centres they visited had flouted laws while only 20% received a positive appraisal.
