Case Study and Sustainability Article Review

Waste Crisis in Campania, Italy

Since early 1990s to late 2000s, the Italian government issued a formal State of Emergency in the region of Campania, south-west Italy because of the saturation of regional waste treatment facilities. During this period, there was huge evidence including a study by World Health Organization that showed increased accumulation of legal, illegal, urban and industrial waste, which in turn contaminated water, air, and soil. The contamination was brought by a series of toxic pollutants from the waste including dioxins. This case provides significant insights regarding sustainability and demonstrates various ecological economics sustainability concepts. Moreover, this case study raises some sustainability challenges or questions that are helpful when considering environmental sustainability.

Synopsis of the Case

Campania region in south-west Italy was under a formal State of Emergency for nearly 14 years i.e. between 1994 and 2008 (Civil Society Engagement with Ecological Economics, 2010). This emergency was brought by the increased accumulation of all manner of waste including urban and industrial waste that contaminated the region's air, water, and soil through a series of toxic pollutants like dioxins. Campania's soil, superficial and underground waters, and atmosphere has been affected by the more than 20 years unlawful and/or unsuitable treatment and disposal of urban and industrial waste. Some of the major factors that caused this contamination include detrimental cultural behaviors, criminal behaviors by major stakeholders such as politicians and company managers, and unlawful activities of the Camorra. Moreover, the region's waste management cycle has been permeated by a network of criminal organizations that carry out unlawful activities that harm the environment. The situation has threatened the life of every living thing and humans given that this region is densely populated.

Ecological Economics Sustainability Concepts Used in the Case

Ecological economics is a different approach to environmental problems from the neoclassical or conventional economics approach. Through ecological economics, the well-being of future generations is based on maintenance of non-market and non-quantifiable characteristics of nature and human institutions. The core concept of ecological economics is sustainability, which is viewed empirically and qualitatively. In this case, sustainability is viewed from local to global spatial scales and biophysical indicators. In Campania's case study, waste management practices failed to measure up to the concept of sustainability, which is regarded as the ability of an activity to continue without affecting the balance between resources and resultant wastes (Barker, 2013). The region is continually subjected to environmental injustice that contaminates the environment at the…