Italy's waste problem

Waste piled up in Naples' streets

Major cities all over the world have to cope with large amounts of waste due to the high numbers of people living there, but not all of them are accused by the EU of breaching directives on waste disposal through leaving litter uncollected.

This is what has happened to Naples.

The European Commission has decried that during 2007-2008, Naples allowed thousands of tonnes of waste to fester in the streets due to inadequate waste disposal sites in the area. The EU directive on waste disposal became law in 2006, and as such the case has been bought against Italy.

The EU has said that the large quantity of waste damaged the environment and was a hazard to people's health. It's not the first time Italy has been the focus of 'illegal waste dumping'. Last year, it was believed the local Mafia deliberately sunk a ship off the coast of south-west Italy with nuclear waste on board.

At the time, informant Francesco Fonti who is from the Calabrian mafia known as the ''Ndrangheta', stated that the crime syndicate have muscled in on the lucrative business of radioactive waste disposal in recent years. However, instead of meeting the country's stringent waste disposal laws, the Mafia had simply sunk the vessel out at sea.

It is the same in Naples; the local version of the Mafia, the Camorra, have a lucrative waste dumping business, where they illegal tip industrial waste in the region's landfill sites, as well as the countryside.

Disposing of the problem

With the EU getting tough on Italy, the country is going to have to work hard to comply with the judgement or else risk a heavy fine. At the peak of the waste crisis, the Italian government opened up several new incinerators in Campania in order to dispose of the rubbish. The army was also drafted into help clear the rubbish, leading to clashes with locals who were angry at the levels of waste that had been left in the streets.

As of this week, the EU has declared that Italy has yet to set up an "adequate network of waste disposal installations as close as possible to the areas where waste is produced."

"By failing to adopt all the measures necessary to prevent danger to human health and damage to the environment in the region of Campania, Italy has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Waste Directive," the judges said.

The Italian government is believed to have blamed "contractual breaches and mafia interference", but the court reportedly said even "the presence of criminal activity" could justify "both the failure to fulfil obligations" or "the failure to have the requisite facilities up and running on time."

The court said that, when the deadline set expired, "the waste littering the public roads totalled 55,000 tonnes; 110,000 tonnes to 120,000 tonnes of waste lay in municipal storage sites awaiting treatment; and the exasperated local inhabitants had started fires in the piles of refuse."

These impromptu pyres were a major embarrassment to the Italian authorities. If the country does not put an adequate waste disposal system in place as fast as possible, there is no doubt a fine and further legal action will follow.

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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