By Emmanuelle Andreani
Naples, Italy - Many Naples residents sum up the region's recurring waste disposal nightmare in one word - the mafia - but organised crime is only part of the conundrum.
"The Camorra (mafia)... are active at every link in the chain, from collecting rubbish to storing it and treating it," says Massimiliano Marotta, a litigation lawyer who specialises in the issue.
The companies that manage rubbish collection and waste treatment centres in Naples and the surrounding Campania region are either infiltrated or directly controlled by the Camorra, Marotta said.
The Camorra are best known for drug trafficking, but experts say the highly lucrative clandestine trade in industrial waste is their second source of revenue, begun in the 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s.
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Undercutting competitors and subverting safety procedures, the "ecomafia" ship industrial waste from the north and dump it illegally in and around Naples in a business that environmentalist Raffaele Del Giudice says enjoys an estimated turnover of €2,5-billion ($3,6-billion) a year.
"One quarter of the toxic and industrial waste produced in the north of Italy is trucked to the south through companies in the north with ties to the Camorra," said Del Giudice of the environmental group Legambiente.
When it arrives, it is often not sorted into solid and liquid waste before being compacted into so-called "ecoballs" - which are anything but eco-friendly.
"If the ecoballs were burned they would release dioxin and other toxic substances," said Franco Specchio, a former Campania regional counsellor.
"So no other region and no other country wants to burn them."
Instead, the compacted rubbish sits in the dumps and decomposes.
"Toxic, even radioactive substances seep into the soil, creating health risks," said geologist Giovanni de Medici.
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