Naples waste management issue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took immediate action, and held his first cabinet meeting in Naples.^[2] He then appointed a new waste commissioner, Guido Bertolaso (then the head of the Civil Protection Department). Bertolaso faced similar protests from the residents of Naples, but during June and July of 2008 he dealt with the problem. He opened new landfill sites and an incinerator. In addition he sent 700 tons of rubbish a day to incinerators in Hamburg, Germany, while new incinerators should be built locally.^[3] By the end of July, Berlusconi declared that the emergency was closed.^[4] By September the rubbish had gone from the streets of Naples^[5],

In March 2009, waste commissioner Bertolaso was transferred to Rome, to deal with a fresh high-profile problem^{[citation needed]} even though great amounts of garbage were still stocked in temporary sites awaiting to be disposed. Likewise, in many municipalities on Naples' periphery there is still a garbage problem. Though Berlusconi's actions have cleaned up the city of Naples, one account states that as of September 2009, "the highways and byways of the rural south remain festering dumping grounds.