Measuring Imbalance: A Municipal Index of Urban Waste Management in the Metropolitan Area of Naples

Abstract The article situates itself within the eco-Marxist analysis of the urban metabolism of waste, interpreting it as a material expression of the metabolic rift between society and nature under capitalism. Through the construction of the Urban Waste Management Imbalance Index (UWMII), which combines per capita residual waste and the distance from statutory recycling targets to quantify municipal-level imbalances in waste management, the study measures, at the municipal scale, territorial inequalities in the production and management of waste within the Metropolitan City of Naples. The results reveal a marked polarization between the urban core and its periphery, where marginal areas concentrate the environmental infrastructures of the urban metabolism.