Waste Metabolism and Socio-environmental Conflict in Campania
1. Waste metabolism and socio-environmental conflict.Starting with Campania’s case study 08/07/11 gd'a 1 D’Alisa G. Research fellow at Autonomous University of Barcelona - ICTA
2. Contents Waste Conflict in Campania: a crisis of democracy Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new set of integrated indicators for waste analysis Capital accumulates waste and waste contributes to capital accumulation 08/07/11 gd'a 2
3. Waste conflict in Campania Assumption Conflicts implies the understanding of the metabolic connections between the city, the countryside, and the bodies. gd'a 08/07/11 3
5. Waste Conflict in Campania Standard narrative of “waste emergency” New York Times May31, 2007 “In theory, a permanent solution is not difficult, and has been proposed by an emergency commission: greater recycling and the opening of several incinerators and new dumping sites in Naples and the neighbouring provinces. But as has happened in several of the identified towns over the last two weeks, local people protest loudly.” (Peter Kiefer, “In Mire of Politics and the Mafia, Garbage Reigns”, NYT, May 31, 2007) 08/07/11 gd'a 5
6. Waste conflict in Campaniaour narrative: “a crisis of democracy” Grounded in a post-normal science (PNS) approach, 08/07/11 gd'a 6
7. The “Post-normal” epistemological framework (PNS)analyses the limitations of “normal” science approaches when facts are uncertainty, values are in dispute, stakes are high and decisions are urgent (Funtowicz and Ravetz, 1994a,b, 1997, 2002; Ravetz and Funtowicz, 1999; Gallopín et al., 2001) PNS emphasizes irreducible uncertainty, multiple perspectives and quality assurance by an “extended peer community”. The latter refers to the expansion of the peer group beyond certified experts to include all those with a stake in the issue such as “judges, journalists, scientists from other fields or just citizens” (Funtowicz and Ravetz, 1994a p. 204). Such an extension improves the democracy of science for governance and enhances the quality of the process and the outcomes. 08/07/11 gd'a 7 Waste conflict in Campaniaour narrative: “a crisis of democracy”
8. Waste conflict in Campaniascattered information: Metropolitan area of Naples 08/07/11 gd'a 8
9. Waste conflict in Campaniascattered information: Added Value (AV), Employment (E), agro-food industry 08/07/11 gd'a 9
10. Waste conflict in Campaniascattered information: PDO, PGI; TSG CaciocavalloSilano CipollottoNocerino Fico bianco del Cilento Mozzarella di BufalaCampana Olio extravergine di olivaCilento Olio extravergine di olivaCollineSalernitane Olio extravergine di olivaIrpinia - Collinedell'Ufita Olio extravergine di olivaPenisolaSorrentina Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio Pomodoro S. Marzanodell'AgroSarnee-nocerino Provolone del Monaco Olio extravergine di oliva Terre Aurunche Ricotta di BufalaCampana Castagna di Serino Oliva di Gaeta Carciofo di Paestum Castagna di Montella Limone Costa d'Amalfi Limone di Sorrento Marrone di Roccadaspide MelannurcaCampana Nocciola di Giffoni VitelloneBiancodell'AppenninoCentrale Suino Napoli Noce di Sorrento Pasta di Gragnano Torrone di Benevento Torroncinocroccantino di San Marco deiCavoti Mozzarella Pizza napoletana Registred Applied 08/07/11 gd'a 10 EC 510/2006 EC 509/2006 EC 510/2006
11. Waste conflict in CampaniaMilestone: steps toward “a crisis of democracy” 08/07/11 gd'a 11 1994 – Welcome to the Waste Emergency Kingdom. The landfills are said to be full, even if we actually do not have any data on the capacity of the landfills. Campania region felt under an emergency legal framework which a special agency deputed to solve the crisis, which has squandered about 8 billion euros. 1998 – Let the worst be the winner and the beginning of storing the treasure.The public tender for the construction and management of the waste facilities and treatment was won by the FIBE on the basis of : cost, and speed of delivering. They start to store the combustible waste blocks which guarantee large subsidies by the state. 2004 - The triangle of death and the square of the beating-up. A group of researchers published on Lancet oncology an essay titled: “The triangle of death” in which they argued that there was a correlation between the illegal dumps and the diffusion of some kind of tumors in Campania. The same year a huge march of protest held in Acerra against the incinerator was violently repressed by the police
12. Waste conflict in CampaniaMilestone: steps toward “a crisis of democracy” 08/07/11 gd'a 12 2007 – An international icon. Pictures of Naples flooded with garbage went all around the world. The US consul in Naples suggested his fellow Americans not to come for sanitary reasons. In the same year Saviano’s Gomorrah was translated in English 2008 – Tanks against garbage. Government issued a special law de facto suspending the ordinary laws in Campania, in terms of both social dissent and environmental protection. On one hand waste facilities became military sites, on the others those facilities can be opened in Campania notwithstanding the provisions in force both at national and EU levels.
13. Waste conflict in Campania: Milestone: steps toward “a crisis of democracy” 1998 Let the worst be the winner and the beginning of storing the treasure. 08/07/11 gd'a 13
14. Waste conflict in Campania: Milestone: steps toward “a crisis of democracy” 1998 Let the worst be the winner and the beginning of storing the treasure. The Italian Government guarantees large subsidies to be financed by a 7% increase in electricity bills. 70 € per Mw (2009). Incinerator, in Acerra with a foreseen 107 Mw capacity would generate a revenue about 100 M€ per year The amount of accumulated combustible waste about 7 Mtons, equivalent to1 Billion € to be potentially generated from combustion 08/07/11 gd'a 14
15. Waste conflict in Campania: Milestone: steps toward “a crisis of democracy” 2004 - The triangle of death and the square of the beating-up In Campania 4% of total Special waste even if 6% of Total Added Value of Italy The Lancet Oncology (Senior and Mazza, 2004). 08/07/11 gd'a 15
16. 2004 - The triangle of death and the square of the beating-up. 08/07/11 gd'a 16 Waste conflict in Campania: Milestone: steps toward “a crisis of democracy” “The garbage is gold” (quotation from a telephone call between Camorra’s affiliates intercepted by the police) Illegal disposal of toxic waste and the crisis of the urban waste disposal are connected in two ways: it is a matter of trust (people do not trust the government which has allowed the dumping of any kind of materials in the landfills) the inquiries on the illegal traffic of waste have often driven to the shutting down of landfills not properly managed.
17. Waste conflict in Campania: Milestone: steps toward “a crisis of democracy” 2004- The triangle of death and the square of the beating-up. 17 Total waste Italy Urban waste Special Waste 08/07/11 Waste in Italy legally and illegally treated ISPRA 2005 Urban Special disappeared Special treated legally gd'a 19.700.000 ton = 5 billion€
18. Waste conflict in Campania: Milestone: steps toward “a crisis of democracy” Illegal disposal of toxic waste and the crisis of the urban waste disposal are connected, the people do not trust the government, the landfills fill up and the beating up goes on 08/07/11 gd'a 18
19. Waste conflict in Campaniasome methodological conclusions In this context, we need a shift of emphasis from a “community of experts” (i.e. scientific peer community) in NS to an “expert community” (i.e. extended peer community) in PNS; the former is led by certified experts, while the latter emerges from a quality assessment of the political process able to articulate “extended facts”, i.e. the diversity of knowledge (e.g. scientific, local), values (e.g. economic, ethical) and beliefs (e.g. material, spiritual) at stake (Ravetz and Funtowicz, 1999). 08/07/11 gd'a 19
20. The problem of waste disposal in Campania is not just a problem of technical, economic and logistic mismanagement, It is not reducible to the inability of Campania's citizens to deal with their own waste. It is no a problem of Italy's reputation. Policies based on these assumptions will continue to fail even if anchored by repressive measures designed to stifle civil unrest 08/07/11 gd'a 20 Waste conflict in Campaniasome policy conclusions
21. 08/07/11 gd'a 21 Waste conflict in Campaniasome policy conclusions http://napolimonitor.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vesuviocorteo_monitor1.jpg Foto di Alfonso De Vito http://napolimonitor.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/mamme_boscoreale.jpg foto di janos http://napolimonitor.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/terzigno15_monitor.jpg foto di StefanoEsposito http://napolimonitor.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/terzigno_monitor2.jpg
22. The effective resolution of this conflict requires instead an approach that takes into account a much wider consideration of values and beliefs at stake. This cannot be accomplished through authoritarian processes but more inclusive ones, whereby different actors at different scales assume responsibilities through a deliberative perspective. Otherwise the crisis of democracy will go on 08/07/11 gd'a 22 Waste conflict in Campaniasome policy conclusions
24. Case studies strategy may suggest hypotheses, interpretations and plausible description in the particular case hopefully applicable also in other cases, but a case-study can be also inherently interesting in its own right (Platt 1988). Some authors underlines the usefulness of using case-study methodology when the researcher want to answer to why and/or how questions and when the case is unique event (Yin 1989). 08/07/11 gd'a 24 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators research question : just looking at the waste generation, sorting and disposal official data how Campania waste management crisis can be explained?
25. Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators Our study research will move some steps toward theoretical propositions or analytical generalization, where the process of inference to general proposition is logicalmore then statistical (Yin 1989; Mitchell 1983 in Platt 1988). If the results presented below are frame-breaking insights (Eisenhardt 1989) to explore similar case, our study research will reach double goals: firstly describing in a more exhaustive way the number that underpin the Campania crisis, and secondly to create a set of indicators complementary to the conventionalones showing the characteristics of waste metabolism in other contexts. 08/07/11 gd'a 25
26. Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators Conventional indicators 08/07/11 gd'a 26 Assumption: Waste generation figures alone do not explain the problem of waste mismanagement in Campania. Data source: ISPRA
27. Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators 08/07/11 gd'a 27 Conventional indicators Assumption: Waste generation figures alone do not explain the problem of waste mismanagement in Campania. Separatecollection Waste disposed Data source: ISPRA
28. Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators 08/07/11 gd'a 28 Research questions: Just looking at the waste generation, sorting and disposal official data how Campania waste management crisis can be explained? Is there a waste indicator able to give us useful information on Campania emergency waste crisis? What kind of methodology; Which methodology is useful for an integrated assessment of Campania’s urban waste metabolism? - MuSIASEM - Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Meatabolism
29. Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators MuSIASEMis an evolving approach created in order to deal with problems related to complex systems and sustainability. It has been developed by integrating various theoretical concepts from different fields: (i) non-equilibrium thermodynamics applied to ecological analysis; (ii) complex systems theory, and (iii) Bioeconomics. 08/07/11 gd'a 29
30. Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators The MuSIASEM has been used in diverse empirical studies related to the sustainability of agriculture (Giampietro, 2003), the societal metabolism of China, (Ramos-Martin et al., 2007) and England (Gasparatos et al., 2008), the analysis of energy issues related to the energy intensity in Catalonia (Ramos-Martin et al. 2009), the introduction of bio-fuels (Giampietro, 2006b) in a socio-economic system depending on oil (Giampietro, 2006c). This is the first attempt to use it for studying waste metabolism 08/07/11 gd'a 30
31. Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators The MuSIASEM characterizes the social metabolism in economic and biophysical terms at different scales based on the Bioeconomics of Georgescu-Roegen (1971) and re-elaborates in an effective way the flow-fund model that he proposed to represent, in biophysical terms, the socioeconomic process of production and consumption of goods and services. The fund variables (capital goods, persons and Ricardian land) represent the size of the system, define the socioeconomic process analysed and remain the same for the whole process. They represent the set of attributes used by the analyst to define what the system is. The flow variables (energy, water, waste, new products) define the elements that go through the system and can change according the accessibility of the stock as well as the technical capacity of the process. They represent the set of attributes that defines what the system does (Giampietro et al., 2009) 08/07/11 gd'a 31
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33. WP = Waste Separate Collection (WSC)+Waste Disposed (WD) Fund variables: • Total Human Activity (THA) = Population * 24 hours * 365 days. •Colonized Land (COL): it is the extension of the area of the system under analysis (in km2)
34. Grammar for waste metabolism 08/07/11 gd'a 33 In order to bridge the gap of conventional indicators, within the rational od MuSIASEM we propose to use two new indicators, Waste Production Metabolic Rate (WPMR), which indicates the pace of waste production per hour of human activity; (2) Density of Waste Production (DWP), which indicates the amount of waste generated per day in a given area. 2i) as the ratio flow/fund: DWPi = WPi/COLi, or 2ii) as a product: DWPi = WPMRi x DHAi. (2.1) Density of Waste Disposed (DWD) which indicates the amount of waste disposed, in a landfill, or trough the inceneration process, per day in a given area. Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators
35. 08/07/11 gd'a 34 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators DWD: the regional ranking changes remarkably, showing a different picture of Italian waste system compared to the conventional indicators Campania has the highest DWD, 491,80 (kg/d/)/km2, almost three times higher than the national average 183,16 (kg/d)/km2.
36. 08/07/11 gd'a 35 Regional level n DPUW (kg/d)/km2 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators This result shows that these regions can experience difficulties in waste management, as it is clear for Campania (D’alisa et al. 2010) and more and more probable for Lazio, which has been experiencing tensions in its waste management over these last years, as well as the Liguria region. Lombardy is the 4th region in the ranking and lies in a lower range.
37. 08/07/11 gd'a 36 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators The chart complements the representation in the regional map. It has two functions: first it shows six different dimensions for each region reinforcing the idea of complementarity among them, second it highlights in a single view the most problematic indicators for each region represented.
38. 08/07/11 gd'a 37 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators Provincial level n-1 DWD (kg/d)/km2 It is interesting to highlight than at the n-1 level Naples, besides being first, has a daily production of waste per km2 twice over than Milan, second in the ranking, which also experienced a waste crisis in the ‘90s (Deputy Camera Doc. XXIII n. 39). The municipality of Milan experienced from 1994 to 1996 a waste crisis after the closing of the landfill at Cerro Maggiore.
39. 08/07/11 gd'a 38 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators The scaling down is useful: to stress the contribution of DWD to detect plausible critique areas and their risk to suffer a waste crisis and socio-environmental conflicts; to highlight, by means of a multi-scale analysis, the necessity to capture the diversity of waste performances at different scale.
40. 08/07/11 gd'a 39 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators The waste problem in Campania is still more evident if we look at the DWD at the provincial level. The multi-scale analysis allows us to capture the difference between Naples and the rest of Campania’s provinces. This result is quite interesting: it confirms that the crisis in Campania has been due mainly to the waste produced and managed in some part of the province of Naples and Caserta. Nevertheless, because of a mono-scale institutional solution of the waste crisis, the rest of provinces have been included in the same emergency plan.
41. 08/07/11 gd'a 40 Scaling down to the municipal level we find a great non homogeneity characterizing the municipalities in Campania. The values range from the 2 (kg/d)/km2 of Tortorella(Sa) o the highest value in the region of 18.367 for Frattaminore(Na) Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators Municipalitylevel n-2 DWD (kg/d)/km2
42. 08/07/11 gd'a 41 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators, some methodological conclusions (1) New and relevant information, are brought about waste metabolism in Italy by the MuSIASEM approach. It allows us to formalize a new set of integrated indicators that according to the results we have shown can be an important tool to detect areas risking waste emergency. The waste emergency in the region is not observable based on the conventional indicators. Campania is 4th for the total amount waste, is 16th for waste per capita, and is not the worst region in terms of separate collection of waste. Instead, looking at the DWD value the region is first in the national ranking. Naples is the worst province more then doubling the second worst province
43. 08/07/11 gd'a 42 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators, some methodological conclusions (2) Lazio and Liguria the 2nd and 3rd respectively for the DWD have experienced waste emergency in the last period, even if not so acute as in Campania. Therefore, we argue that the DP indicator is suitable to assess the plausible risk of a given territory to suffer a waste crisis. The high density per km2 is an indicator of a high waste pressure in the area that might generate conflicts between and within local communities when dealing with the localization of waste infrastructures, such as incinerators or landfills. Secondly, the multi-scale analysis gives a more exhaustive picture of Italian waste system than using a single scale and shows the limits of a unique institutional solution to waste problems.
44. 08/07/11 gd'a 43 Campania’s Urban Waste Metabolism case: new indicators, some policy suggestion (1) What kind of policy recommendation come out from this integrated assessment? Local waste plans might deal more effectively with the problem of waste management, looking at DWD indicator at different scales, complementarily to the traditional indicators, before to plan any institutional actions But more relevant in terms of science for governance is the fact that in the region of Campania there are several provinces whose performance are pretty well for each indicators we used. This should suggest for the future to avoid declaring a whole region as a zone in a waste emergency just for institutional region before checking its performance at different scales.
46. Capital accumulates waste and waste contributes to capital accumulation Scope: To study the dynamics of social metabolism and capitalism through the lens of environmental conflicts. 08/07/11 gd'a 45
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48. Capital accumulates waste and waste contributes to capital accumulation Definition: Ecological distribution conflicts Environmental conflicts are characterized by struggles over the burdens of pollution or over the damages and injuries made to extract resources or dump the wastes. They arise from social asymmetries in the distribution of political and economic power, property rights and income. 08/07/11 gd'a 47
49. Capital accumulates waste and waste contributes to capital accumulation Capitalism is a social production relation where labourers have no control over the means of production. Accumulation is the process in which the separation between labourers and their means of production is continuously reproduced. Over-accumulation: is the result of the accumulation process which generate exceeding capital capacity that does not find profitable opportunities. 08/07/11 gd'a 48
50. Capital accumulates waste and waste contributes to capital accumulation Contribution to the literature. - Ecological distribution conflicts (Martinez-Alier, 2002): -> Driving forces of social metabolism. - Capitalism (Harvey, 2003): -> The everlasting problem of the revolutionary subject. 08/07/11 gd'a 49
51. Capital accumulates waste and waste contributes to capital accumulation Primitive Accumulation [PA] (Marx) 08/07/11 Preconditions of a capitalist mode of production Historical PA (Lenin, Dobb, Sweezy ) Continuous phenomenon within the capitalist mode of production Inherent-continuous PA (Luxemburg, Amin) In the Marx discourse you can find both if you consider the central concept: separation (between labourers and means of production) (De Angelis 2001) gd'a 50
52. 08/07/11 gd'a 51 Capital accumulates waste and waste contributes to capital accumulation Strategy of capitalism (because of over-accumulation):- Accumulation by dispossession (Harvey, 2003)The inherent necessity of the capital system to separate, through extra-economic means, the labourers from the means of production to perpetuate the capitalistic relation. i.e. Bio-prospecting, patent rights, privatization of public utilities,... Second strategy - Accumulation by contamination The process by which the capital system endangers, through cost shifting, the means of existence (and subsistence) of human beings to perpetuate the capitalistic relation. i.e. Air pollution, Alteration of biogeochemical cycles,...