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ILO documentary to be screened at environmental movie festival in Italy

Turning waste into wages is the goal of an ambitious project in Burkina Faso and the subject of an International Labour Office documentary to be screened by the Italian Film Festival "CinemAmbiente" in Turin, Italy.

News | 11 October 2007

Turning waste into wages is the goal of an ambitious project in Burkina Faso and the subject of an International Labour Office documentary to be screened by the Italian Film Festival "CinemAmbiente" in Turin, Italy.

"Burkina Faso: Protecting the Environment by Profiting from Garbage" is the story of an award-winning project conceived by the ILO’s Turin Center graduate, Andrea Micconi, who, with the help of local authorities and enterprises, established a self-run plastic recycling centre for the country’s capital city. Before the center was opened, Ouagadougou’s streets and surrounding countryside were choked with waste from plastic bags, bottles and other refuse. The recycling center not only solved a major pollution problem, but introduced a new, sustainable source of employment and income for the Burkinabé people.

Around 70 films are shown every year at CinemAmbiente in Turin. This film festival on environmental issues has been running since 1998 and past editions of the event honoured filmmakers Taggart Siegel and Leonard Retel Helmrich. Its main sponsors are UNEP and the Italian Ministry for the Environment. The ILO’s documentary, which has also been shown in shorter form on CNN, will be screened at 4.00pm on Monday, October 15 at Cinema Massimo – Screen 3, via Verdi 18, 10124 Torino.

Further details on the festival can be found on: http://www.cinemambiente.it/