International

SP Member of Parliament Henk van Gerven is urging the government to reject plans for the import of waste from Naples for processing by Dutch firms. The waste processing companies want to bring some of the rubbish piling up in the Italian city to the Netherlands for incineration. ‘Carting waste around is always unnecessary,’ says Van Gerven, ‘but it is particularly bad if by doing so we are going to the aid of the Italian mafia.’

It is the fault of the Mafia that the mountain of rubbish in Naples has grown so much over the last few years. Organised crime makes a great deal of money by standing in the way of the construction of effective waste processing and via illegal dumping. “The local population is not helped by this sort of solution,” says Van Gerven. “If we take the problem on, the mafia will be able to continue happily on their way, carrying on frustrating processing and dumping the waste.”

Dutch incineration plants have, on paper, an overcapacity which means that they are interested in the Italian waste. During the last ten years numerous incinerators have been built, despite the fact that it has long been clear that demand in the Netherlands itself was getting smaller. “Low-cost incineration of waste is not a sustainable solution to the problem,” Van Gerven insists. “If we in the Netherlands have to incinerate less waste as a result of recycling then we should be pleased about this. It means, after all, that the incinerators can be closed down and the air cleaned up. Carting waste to the Netherlands in order to aid the mafia is hardly sensible. I don’t think that the Dutch people will be happy breathing in the fumes from the Mafia’s rubbish. Let’s put a stop to this nonsense.

• See also the SP report, Waste has a future (PDF, 1 MB)