Italy's production of trash continues to grow and efforts to recycle are failing to take off in many regions, according to a new report by the government's environmental agency Apat.
The amount of refuse produced nationally was up 2.7% in 2006, reaching a total of 32.5 million tons, with Tuscany standing out as the region where people generated the most rubbish.
During the same year, the amount of rubbish which was recycled edged up from 24.2% to 25.8%, Apat said, stressing however that some regions were much better than others in this area.
Northern regions, with 39.9% of trash recycled, had already achieved the 40% target set by law for 2007, the report said.
But in the south the figure was still only 10.2% and in central regions just 20%, despite substantial progress over the previous year.
In 2006, just under half of all the rubbish produced in Italy ended up in landfills. This was marginally less than in the previous year.
