35 years ago, when we first lived in Pozzuoli (part of Metropolitan Naples), I was surprised by how little trash and garbage individual households generated and how trash was collected. Naples has never been a trash-free city and labor strikes by sanitation workers have left garbage piled 12 feet high in the streets. That said, on trash collection days our Italian neighbors would put out one small bag of stuff compared to our multiple bags of garbage and trash. Years ago we learned to deposit trash in those big, ugly, roadside bins. Today, thanks to the recycling movement, the number (and color) of trash bins has increased with a greater mix of overflowing plastic, cardboard, metal and organic refuse.
Nevertheless, I think Italians traditionally “recycled” long before the movement became fashionable simply because they didn’t waste much. They fed their dogs and cats leftovers; glass bottles were saved for preserving tomatoes; cans were used for starting seedling plants; and, vegetable peels, coffee grinds, egg shells, etc. was composted for the garden. Today urban Italians’ consumption habits have changed as they shifted (unfortunately) from home grown/homemade to manufactured foods and products resulting in more disposable plastic, glass and metal packaging and containers that have added to the collection problems.
This week our landlord arrived at our apartment door with three large plastic recycling containers. He explained in detail the pick-up schedule…Tuesdays and Fridays - organic garbage; Mondays – paper and cardboard; Wednesdays – metal and plastic; and Thursday - glass. The good news is that starting May 3rd, those big, ugly street bins will no longer line the streets of Soriano. The bad news is we have to find space in our tiny, one bedroom apartment for those three containers and lug them up and down the stairs several times a week.
Currently we deposit our trash every day in those ugly bins. Starting in May we will be required to keep garbage for several days and recycling for up to a week. We can rinse the recyclables before bagging and storing them in their respective bins but organic garbage will be a challenge…I guess we’ll be cooking with less garlic and fewer onions.
I do not like the sound of that at all! In the time we have lived here I have got used to taking our rubbish to the bin selection, recycling when we have enough and the 'smellies' as required. It is so much better than the system in the UK of house to house once a week, to have the bins emptied daily in a hot climate. I do hope this is not the start of a change for the whole of the region.
ReplyDeleteMixed feelings here. The big bins may be ugly but at least you can recycle your stuff anytime. As we try to recycle picnic stuff during our bike tours, the lack of bins will have everything going into the trash rather than being separated. We still have yet to learn the recycling days here in Viterbo, instead we just haul it off to the bins!
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ReplyDeleteLLM - sono d'accordo!
ReplyDeleteLarry& Heather - even the locals are grumbling about which bags to use for which stuff on which days
Michael - don't know about la campagna.Our landlord said that there'd be pick-up 3days/week for smellies in the summer. But now we need to figure out how to keep dirty recycling bins in our kitchen.....Not happy about the thought of sanitizing them after each pickup......but that's the only thing that I'm not happy about here.