The woman found the crying child with its umbilical cord still attached as she threw out her rubbish on Sunday evening, in the town of Santa Maria di Sala, near Venice, Rai News reported.
She initially mistook the child's cries for those of a cat and began searching around the bins to see if there was an animal in trouble. She eventually found the plastic bag containing the newborn behind the bins.
The woman immediately called the emergency services, who took the boy to Dolo hospital. In spite of his ordeal, the child is in perfect health and hospital staff have named him 'Attilio'.
Police suspect the child was abandoned by his mother and are investigating the incident. If nobody comes forward to claim the child within 10 days, the boy will automatically be put up for adoption.
“Throwing a newborn baby in the bin is a defeat for humanity,” Gian Luigi Gigli, president of the Italian pro-life group, Movement for Life, told Andkronos.
“We need to do more to offer alternatives to abandonment, such as informing people about the ability to give birth anonymously in Italian hospitals.”
In June 2015, a baby girl was found abandoned at a different set of rubbish bins in Santa Maria di Sala by a passing nun.