Of Humans, Sheep, and Dioxin: A History of Contamination and Transformation in Acerra, Italy

The so-called waste crisis in Campania, Acerra, began officially in 1994, when the Italian government issued the state of emergency in the region, creating an ad hoc agency to manage waste disposal. While the state of emergency limited democratic participation and even the very compliance with regulations in the name of urgency, it focused on urban waste, leaving citizens and activists alone in denouncing the toxic contamination occurring in the region at least since the 1980s. In 2004 the multinational corporation Impregilo began construction of a gigantic incinerator, one of the biggest in Italy, adjacent to the Montefibre plant. The new incinerator, able to burn 650,000 tons of waste per year, was completed in 2009. Other polluting factories have since commenced operations in Acerra, including Fri-el Green power, a thermo-electric power plant burning palm oil, and others have applied for permission to become active in the area. Environmental injustice affects both humans and nonhumans. While techno-fixes are often directed toward separating/insulating humans from the rest, an emancipatory project which recognizes the embodiment of socio-economic injustice into the experience of risks and exposure cannot avoid challenging the very origins of injustice.