Trash in Sicily

It is. I'm seeing videos of trash everywhere.

We never saw trash problems during the two weeks that were there in 2018.

OTOH, Naples has had impressive garbage strikes. Perhaps, Sicily had a garbage strike at some time.

This reminds me of a time when I was “shocked” by litter, and kindly put in my place. In my defense, I was young and stupid. 1977, Costa Rica, garbage thrown everywhere without a second thought. I remarked to my host family (I was on a student home stay) that you could get fined up to $500 for littering in the US. They laughed at crazy Americans who charge for everything and proudly announced that in Costa Rica you could simply throw your trash for free.

I learned a valuable lesson about trying to impose my cultural norms and point of view on other cultures………….

Yes and no. In 2018, while I don’t recall seeing much trash in the cities other than what would be considered normal or typical, but driving around the countryside was different. On the outskirts of the cities and at the pull offs and rest areas along the roads, it was terrible. It was as though people brought their household trash and dumped it to keep from having to pay to have it picked up. On a tour that’s not something you’d need to deal with. It was more an eyesore while driving around, not anything you’d need to step over. The problem was worse near the larger cities like Catania and Palermo.

I was there 4 years ago and didn’t notice anything. I’m perhaps not the most observant person on this issue, but if it were literally piles of trash to step over on the street I’d notice it. I’m sure it varies by location, and like anywhere else, areas with less funding are more likely to have difficulty. As a tourist you are less likely to be in such areas - the historic core of cities, and towns that attract visitors, are less likely to have trouble than a neglected apartment block in a city, or a rural area with very limited trash services.
I was in Palermo, Siracusa, Scopello, Erice, and day trips a few other places.

But if you want pristine and manicured cleanliness then Italy, south of Rome especially, might not be the best place. While there aren’t piles of trash, there’s grit and graffiti and imperfect bathrooms and noisy sometimes Smokey motorbikes and yes, some litter.

EDIT - I was there in 2017 which was 5 years ago. Counting is hard. But in this case it might matter due to the 2018 garbage strike that a later poster referenced.

Read this very long trip report with tons of pics made in May 2022, trash and spotless villages included:

https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/ultimate-month-in-sicily-1708079/

2018 was the worst moment of the Great Sicilian Garbage collection crisis, that's not been solved but has improved.

Incidentally, it wasn't people that threw garbage along the roads, it was truck drivers in outsourcing. They were paid to bring garbage to the landfills during the emergency, but most could not find an open site in the same area and they needed to empty their trucks not to go bankrupt. Garbage attracts garbage.

We spent a couple of weeks in Sicily in September. We thought Palermo and other cities to be cleaner than Rome (not saying much I suppose), but as another poster or two indicated, you get out and drive the countryside and it is a different story. Any wide spot in the road is a place to pile the trash, not just litter, but bags of it and larger items, sometimes 3-4 feet tall, and mostly recent (at least the stuff on top, and we saw people adding to it).

Would that prevent me from going back? Not at all, and we enjoyed our time immensely.

We were there in May. I just did a quick scan of our photos and everything looked litter free and pretty clean to me. The exterior of some of the buildings could use a good cleaning but that is in process there and other parts of Europe. That included our hotel in Palermo which is covered in scaffolding and getting a good scrubbing courtesy of the government. And graffiti exists everywhere including here in the US. If you hate litter, don’t visit some parts of the Middle East or Southeast Asia. That would blow your mind to see people in expensive cars dropping trash from their car windows and people within sight of a trash barrel dropping their trash on the ground at national parks. Our guides in the Middle East and Asia apologized to us in advance concerning this issue. It comes down to education and infrastructure. This is where we were in the US in the mid 1960’s

Thanks, all. I am feeling much better about this trip due to your comments. Much appreciated.

i have seen more trash and worse in american cities than i ever saw in any city/town in sicily. i was there last summer and traveled all over for a month.

No matter how serious a garbage crisis may be (due to strikes, or problems with full landfills) you can rest assured that the tourist areas will be always spotless. So unless you plan to venture out of the city centers where tourist attractions are, you won’t be seeing much trash around.