The Naples waste management crisis is a series of events surrounding the lack of waste collection and illegal toxic waste dumping in and around the Province of Naples (now known as the Metropolitan City of Naples), Campania, Italy, beginning in the 1980s. In 1994, Campania formally declared a state of emergency, ending in 2008, however, the crisis has had negative effects on the environment and on human health, specifically in an area that became known as the triangle of death. Due to the burning of accumulated toxic wastes in overfilled landfills and the streets, Naples and the surrounding areas became known as the "Land of pyres" (terra dei fuochi). The crisis is largely attributed to government failure to efficiently waste manage, as well as the illegal waste disposal by the Camorra criminal organization. The emergency In the 1980s and 1990s, Naples and the Campania region in southern Italy suffered from the dumping of solid waste into overfilled landfills. With no regional waste management plan in place, the region's main landfill in Pianura became overfilled with both hazardous and non-hazardous waste, with waste also coming from northern Italy. In February 1994, a state of emergency was declared in Campania by Prime Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, and created the Committee for the Waste Emergency in Campania (Commissariato di Governo per l'emergenza rifiuti in Campania). The Pianura landfill was closed in 1996. Government response and the "emergency of the emergency" After the first commissioner was removed, Antonio Rastrelli took over in 1996. In July 1997, a regional waste management plan was finally approved. In 1998, he initiated a request for tender to companies to build waste treatment plants, including incinerators, to generate refuse-derived fuel from the "ecobales" (bales formed of refuse). By the end of 1998, FIBE, a consortium of Salini Impregilo won the tender, which was highly based on its low cost rather than its proposed use of technology to manage the waste crisis. By December 1999, all regional landfills had reached capacity, and waste started to accumulate in the streets. In 2001, the first plant was built to manage the ecobales, but was not capable of handling the daily amount of waste, nor was the quality of the waste suitable for incineration. FIBE was given the power to decide the location of facilities without local consultation or environmental impact assessment, and by 2002, had planned to build an incinerator in Acerra