Has the government thought about providing people with a rebate or money for the amount of trash taken to trash collection sites? For example people could bring their empty bottles and get some money back; or take in empy cans, get some money back, paper, get some money back; etc. etc. Make it worthwhile for people to dispose of their garbage the right way. You may find the homeless will start collecting trash and take it to a trash collection site and get some money for it!

what's with the same four paragraphs?

The city government should sieze control of garbage collection responsibilities on the basis of public health concerns. That would do an end run on the mafia's attempts to gain a foothold in the business, and get the garbage off the streets.

Piles of rubbish in the streets of Naples is what you would expect to see in third world countries than a country that did so much for our civilisation.

You have got to be kidding me... how about a little personal responsibiliyty here? If you can't get your government to take care of your trash, take care of it yourself. I am pretty sure someone who has to live in that filth can come up with a sloution. As a nurse I can only imagine how bad the health situation is there.This is not the dark ages people.Someone needs to do something, but as long as there is a government entity to blame people will sit on their hands, drown in garbage,complain about the smell yet not lift a hand to take care of it themsleves. It is SUCH a comfort to see we Americans are not the only people to have given up independent thinking...

You have got to be kidding me... how about a little personal responsibiliyty here? If you can't get your government to take care of your trash, take care of it yourself. I am pretty sure someone who has to live in that filth can come up with a sloution. As a nurse I can only imagine how bad the health situation is there.This is not the dark ages people.Someone needs to do something, but as long as there is a government entity to blame people will sit on their hands, drown in garbage,complain about the smell yet not lift a hand to take care of it themsleves. It is SUCH a comfort to see we Americans are not the only people to have given up independent thinking...

Americans or Northern Europeans that have never lived in Southern Italy can never understand the depth of the problem. It goes far beyond the current trash crisis. You only have to experience Naples to understand our logic simply doesn’t apply. I lived in Naples for three years and developed a strange love/hate relationship with the place. By far the best food in Italy and the people are wonderful. If you read about the history of the area they have a profound distrust for government (State or local) trusting only the family unit. They will find their own strange, probably short term, way to deal with this issue. After all, when you live by a volcano it’s only a matter of when not if so they see live differently.

It appears this Mafia issue will never get solved. Mafia are like diseases that persist throughout generations because nature in a funny way keeps such diseases around. To survive this long they must also be doing something right because the government should be able to uproot the whole organization but we don't see that happening.

With all due respect, my last visit to Rome to see my aunts, uncles and relatives was compromised by the national news exhibiting such a sad state of affairs, healthwise, politically and socially in Naples. Shame should be felt by the Italian governments who have dismissed their constituents as second-class citizens, bringing on this dispespectful scenario. I hope that the government gives full power to the military and cracks down hard on the criminals, at all levels, to bring them to justice. No matter what race, color, or creed of Neaplolitans and its residents should be exposed to these hazards. Its time the Italian government start behaving like the men and women they were elected to be.

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't understand why, if the Camorra are in the trash business for financial gain, they haven't cleaned up the mess. As an environmental consultant, it disturbs me that no branch of the government has been able to help. There are always several dimensions to a problem, but it is the responsibility of the government to protect the citizens, regardless of the threats that government may have to endure.

I can never understand why people don't take personal responsibility dealing with such a trashy problem as the unnecessary accumulation of mountains of trash.

Ah Naples. A beautiful city with a stinky problem. Here's a solution: get Vesuvius to erupt one more time, cover the city in lava, burn up all the garbage and...voila.

New Naples, ladies and gentlemen.

RE: Laura Ashley

Because they are not in the business to do any work. When a large problem or emergency occurs.... the gov't releases funds to deal with it. Because it is emergency money it bypasses a lot of red tape and laws to control where it goes.

So basically, the Mafia are taking the 'emergency money' and doing absolutely nothing with the problem, and are interested in keeping it in this same endless cycle because they are getting free money to do nothing.

This is why nothing is going to change until the mafia there is stopped.. and GFL doing that.

Further, how do you expect people to take 'personal responsability'

That is a narrow way of thinking... the problem is bigger than that. It isn't just one big trash pile in the entire city, the culture has turned towards doing this.

...besides, where are the people going to put it, if the infastructure isn't working?

It's just what people do now, because it's been that way for so long. Change the root of the problem (The mafia) so the problems change.

I lived in Naples for most of my life before I ran over to USA (legally of course). The Camorra runs the life of everybody. Personal responsability? Where can people bring the trash? I tried, there was nowhere to go. Do you think we have open dump sites like here? If someone talks too much, the car is broken into, the house is shot into, the kids are in trouble. No police will help. The Italian governament IS the MOB. Do you really think they care?. The make millions, they are silenced with money. We feel isolated and silenced. Much like in the middle east, whith the Taliban, no much different. How can we trust Rome, when the Camorra lives there? Napoli is the dump site for all Italy, trash comes there from other towns and we litterally drown it it, care of the camorra. Why we do not fight? We have no jobs, the Camorra is the only employer, up to 40% of people younger than 40 has no job. Can you imagine what this means for human beings? You americans do not know how good you have it.