How much does an illegal landfill cost us?

Perhaps, if we knew the costs of illegal landfill, we could be more careful about waste disposal, avoiding dumping it in inappropriate places. The cost of illegal landfill to the community is not a single value, but can be broken down into: three major costs: environmental, direct economic, and long-term indirect costsIn Italy, these phenomena are studied primarily as "environmental crime" or "ecomafia," precisely because the cost is passed on to the community.

Direct economic cost (remediation and removal)

It is the most visible part:

• Removal and disposal of abandoned waste can cost hundreds of euros per ton in the simplest cases, and also over €500/ton for special or hazardous waste 
• Some municipal interventions are easily achieved tens of thousands of euros for a single site (even just a few hundred tons) 
• In the most serious cases (underground or industrial landfills) we speak of millions of euros for the reclamation of an area

Systemic economic cost

This is where the “hidden” damage comes into play:

• Illegal landfills generate infringement procedures and European sanctions for failure to properly manage waste
• Italy is continually sanctioned by the European Union, and the latest complaints, for failing to close and clean up landfills on its territory, date back to 2025.
• Forty percent of environmental crimes committed in Italy involve waste disposal.
• Municipalities and Regions must continuously finance extraordinary reclamations not foreseen in the budgets
• The illegal waste sector in Italy is estimated at billions of euros in criminal revenue per year, which reflects a huge transfer of costs to the community 

Environmental cost 

It is the most difficult to calculate, but often the highest:

• Soil pollution: contamination by heavy metals, hydrocarbons, solvents
• Groundwater pollution: potentially irreversible damage
• Emissions and fires (common in illegal landfills): release of dioxins and toxic substances
• Loss of biodiversity and land degradation

Read also: 

• Landfills: still too many in Italy
• The most polluted places in the world
• Waste Colonialism: The Consequences of E-Waste Disposal