The garbage management in Campania has been under control of a special emergency commission for 16 years. On the territory, two main issues have led the region into a serious crisis: the ordinary management of the garbage and the illegal stock clearance of special and toxic trash. These two problems are often entwined on the border between the Naples and Caserta district.
The smoky land
Recently WHO has asserted that in Naples and its outskirts the mortality rate due to cancer and deformity is the highest in Italy. Because of the lack of surveillance in this border, the Mafia is able to exploit the garbage business. Along this border, the “Asse Mediano” runs, one of the main highways connecting the towns that are more involved in this garbage crisis: from the dump of Pianura to the incinerator of Acerra, passing through Giuliano, Aversa, Caivano and those localities hit by the most serious Italian environmental disaster of the last 30 years.
Along this road, the acidic smell of brunt plastic sticks to your skin, and browsing through the horizon, high columns of black smoke spring from burning garbage and toxic waste: this is the “Smoky Land”.