ITALY: Teresa the donkey leads Italian green initiative to keep environment clean

A noble band of donkeys become Sicilian town's green warriors replacing local rubbish trucks in an initiative to improve the environment. The Sicilian town of Castelbuono has decided to look into its past in order to deal with problems of the future. Replacing its rubbish trucks with a band of noble donkeys to collect the city's refuse, the town's mayor is convinced he can keep their environment cleaner. Already top of the list for recycling waste in Sicily, the town which dates back to the 1300s, has called upon Teresa the donkey and three of her friends to help them with their latest 'green' initiative. ''We had this idea to continue along our virtuous path, to look at new initiatives, even if this one is natural and practical, in order to come up with something to improve our environment' said Castelbuono mayor Mario Cicero. Teresa takes her job quite seriously, clopping round the town with her ecological friendly box on her back picking up the things other people don't want. But the townsfolk are distinctly unimpressed. 'This just won't do' said old age pensioner Provvidenza Romeo. 'I don't agree with the donkeys, we need to move forward not backward, it's like going backwards forty years' said resident Caterina Salemi. Most of the residents can still remember when donkeys were a common sight around town and relate those times with hardship and poverty. But Teresa's assistant rubbish collector Giuseppe Catalano thinks they are wrong. 'These donkeys are great, we work well together' he said. Catalano even carries a little dustpan and brush on their rounds just incase Teresa gets caught on the hop away from her toilet. Apart from cutting down on pollution the town's mayor says the donkeys, who work a five-hour shift, six days a week, cost far less to run than the old rubbish trucks and can continue working for up to fifteen years. And besides you can't cuddle a rubbish truck.

ITN Source | February 17, 2007

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