The Naples waste management crisis is a series of events surrounding the lack of waste collection in the city of Naples that peaked in the summer of 2008, and regarding the disposal of the trash is currently unresolved.
Since the mid-1990s, Naples and the Campania region have suffered from the dumping of municipal solid waste into overfilled landfills. Another problem is that Pianura's garbage dump in Naples was filled by North Italy's industries and garbage from other Italian regions. Beginning on 21 December 2007, the municipal workers refused to pick up any further material; as a result, the waste had begun to appear as regular fixtures on the streets of Naples, posing grave health risks to the metropolitan population. On 31 December, the government closed one of two major dumps near the city at the request of the city's residents.
Reports during the summer of 2008 stated that the problem was caused at least in part by the Camorra, a powerful local mafia based in Campania, who had created a lucrative business in the municipal waste disposal business. Heavy metals, industrial waste, and chemicals and household waste are frequently mixed together, then dumped near roads and burned to avoid detection, leading to severe soil and air pollution.
Since the 1990s, Governor of Naples Antonio Bassolino turned the city into a political stronghold for his campaigns. His inability and failings to address the waste in the city highlighted by the media destroyed the image of his administration. In January 2008 Romano Prodi’s government announced plans for the solution of the crisis, including the building of three new incinerators. Prodi appointed a former national police chief as waste commissioner and the army was called in to bulldoze the waste from the streets of Caserta, while protesters clashed with police in central Naples. But no real progress had been made by May of that year, when Prodi's government was defeated in the general election. At that time over 200,000 tonnes of waste still remained on the streets.