Shoulder Deep In Trash

meangreendork · January 7, 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7168686.stm

Rubbish torched in Naples crisis
Piles of rubbish have been set alight by residents in Naples angered by a continuing row about refuse.
Local dumps are completely full and communities have blocked attempts to build new ones in their areas. As refuse collectors have nowhere to take the rubbish, heaps have built up since the dispute began almost a fortnight ago. More than a hundred fires have been reported and environment officials have warned of a risk of toxic smoke. Firefighters were unable to deal with all the emergency calls, citing staff shortages. One street was blocked by residents who feared that a rubbish dump in their area might be re-opened.
EU proceedings
The situation in Campania is an outrage that our country cannot afford any more
Ermete Realacci
President, Italian parliamentary commission for the environment.
Naples and the surrounding Campania region have endured a series of refuse crises over the past few years and the European Union began legal action during the last dispute in June 2007.
Although the case is continuing, it is likely that the latest row will trigger a faster response. A spokeswoman for the European Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, said he was monitoring the situation. President of the Italian parliamentary commission for the environment, Ermete Realacci, said the row was going from bad to worse.
"The situation in Campania is an outrage that our country cannot afford any more", he said.
He appealed to the authorities to find appropriate dumping sites and to residents to do more to recycle their waste.

I heard more about this on NPR, and apparently, the Camorra (read, Mafia), runs the garbage disposal industry in Naples and they're to blame for this whole problem. The Camorra-run disposal companies are given trash/waste (normal and industrial) that they'll dispose at cut-rate prices, but in reality, ends up dumped and buried, or burned...and in illegal and not-so eco-friendly ways. This muscles out legitimate disposal companies...and as for new dumps and incinerators, well, the land eyeballed for that is bought up by the mafia.

WOW.

Edited January 7, 2008 by meangreendork

untbowler · January 7, 2008

this is not much different than the Environmentalists here blocking any and everything being built in the country such as Power Plants and Oil Refineries that are greatly needed. Thank god most have sufficent sanitation programs.

Coffee and TV · January 7, 2008

this is not much different than the Environmentalists here blocking any and everything being built in the country such as Power Plants and Oil Refineries that are greatly needed. Thank god most have sufficent sanitation programs.

How in the hell did you come up with that connection? That's not even close.

If anything its an argument for government-provided services rather than just allowing highest-bidder privatization of these services.

meangreendork · January 7, 2008

How in the hell did you come up with that connection? That's not even close.
If anything its an argument for government-provided services rather than just allowing highest-bidder privatization of these services.

I didn't see the connection either.

Mafia-run "waste disposal companies" shouldering out legitimate companies resulting in an environmental disaster...

...Environmentalists against power plants and oil refineries...

...I don't see the connection. Besides, the environmentalists may have a case for their argument, depending on the location of a given refinery or plant. That's my being neutral on this because we do have a power/energy shortage.

It's an argument against organized crime, that's what this case is. The dumps are topped off, people are burning trash in the streets, and I don't even want to know what this situation will result in given a few more years. It's been what...2 years, at least, since this became a problem?