ROME , Italy ( CNN ) -- Italy 's prime minister held emergency meetings on Monday to discuss the growing garbage problem in Naples , where more than two weeks of closed dumps and uncollected garbage has led to mountains of trash across the city . Collectors stopped picking up rubbish on December 21 , saying that dumps are full . The garbage problem has become so bad that Neapolitan residents have started burning their waste , leading to noxious fumes permeating the air in the southern Italian coastal city . On Monday , the government called on the army to help with emergency trash collection for the second time in a year . Bags of rotting , uncollected waste now line city streets and sit in alleys beneath residential apartment blocks . In some places , the piles of trash tower over the cars driving past . Prime Minister Romano Prodi met with the interior and environment ministers in Rome after President Giorgio Napolitano , who is from Naples , said he was alarmed by the crisis . The latest problems began on December 31 , when the government closed one of the area 's two working dumps . Gian Francesco Raiano , a spokesman for the government 's `` garbage crisis administrator , '' said the dump was closed at the request of residents . That left only one working dump , in the town of Serre , which is able to accept only 2,000 tons of trash a day . Raiano said that was the reason trash started piling up on the streets . Authorities are hoping to alleviate the problem when they reopen a long-closed dump in the town of Pianura , near Naples , by the end of this week . The government announced on December 30 that it planned to reopen Pianura , and the decision immediately sparked protests by nearby residents . They blocked roads to stop trucks from entering the site to prepare to open it after 12 years out of commission , and there were scuffles as police tried to move protesters away . Problems with Naples ' garbage have been around in some form for 14 years , when Italian authorities first declared the situation an emergency . Complicating the issue is the involvement of organized crime , which has long controlled the region 's waste business . The Camorra , as the mafia is known in Naples , controls both dumps and garbage trucks , making the problem enormously difficult for the government to solve . Forty dumping sites have operated in the Campania region over the past 30 years , but most have been closed for various reasons , including criminal investigations related to the Camorra . Residents ' protests , over-saturation , and lack of proper equipment were other factors . Italian media have cited statistics saying that Naples produces 1.6 million tons of garbage a year , and that the government has spent 1.8 billion euros ( $ 2.7 billion ) over the past 14 years to deal with the problem . E-mail to a friend .
Prime Minister Romano Prodi holds emergency meetings over trash problems . Prodi forced to act after army called to help clear rubbish piles around Naples . Score: 6 Residents in a city suburb set up roadblocks in protest at dump reopening .