One of the biggest problem economists have in trying to value environmental goods and services is knowing just what to value. This doesn't help:
Italy lost hundreds of thousands of tonnes of dangerous waste in 2005, largely thanks to the role of organised crime, an environmentalist group reported.
"If you calculate the difference between the weight of dangerous waste declared by industry and the weight of the waste that in fact enters the treatment cycle, you get a figure of between 350,000 and 400,000 tonnes," said Enrico Fontana, head of the environment and waste division of the Legambiente organisation.
Each year the association's "Ecomafia" report points to the links between organised crime and environmental damage.
This year it highlights the growing role played by gangs in the south of the country which have infiltrated the industry devoted to treating industrial waste, in particular waste regarded as dangerous because of the presence of toxic, corrosive or carcinogenic substances.
Sicily, Campania, Puglia and Calabria are the regions most affected, said Legambiente, but the web of "criminal enterprises" has also spread northwards.
"It is a real network: so as to avoid the cost of treatment, the business which produces the waste calls on an illegal firm," said Fontana.
"That can act in different ways: it can bury it under ground, it can burn it in the open air, by mixing in for example solvents with piles of tires or old clothes."
