Volunteers Clean Up Over 500 Dirty Syringes from Parma Streets

Volunteers for the Foundation for a Drug-Free World have been regularly cleaning up trash and unsightly refuse around the city of Parma, Italy. And at the top of their list of most destructive and sought-after items are used syringes. 

Less than a month after their last drug education and prevention event in Parma, volunteers walked along Cornocchio Way, picking up as many discarded syringes as they could find.

Although they intitially found 50—their highest number collected to date—the group continued, moving on to Ponte Nazioni, where they located a field infamous for its use as a syringe dumping ground.

One volunteer for the Foundation noted that anyone who saw them wanted to assist, and they received several leads on other places where syringes are improperly discarded.

“And continuing in this way … we collected 521 needles. The highest number ever disposed of in Parma,” said a volunteer.

The Foundation for a Drug-Free World will continue its anti-drug efforts with a number of similar cleanup and prevention projects scheduled for the coming weeks.