Who "carries the bag” is eco-trendy

by Eleonora Anello

”Porta la sporta” ("Bring the bag") is the claim of the new campaign for the prevention of waste brought by the Associations of Comuni Virtuosi of Italy.
Bring the shopping bag is always "in" and buy a bag of plastic is "out". In Italian “sporta” means a bag, the large and capacious bag placed where housewives spending. So it becomes testimonial of eco-trendy style.

Focus on “Porta la Sporta” with Silvia Ricci, creator and manager of the campaign.

From such assumptions started the initiative?
«It all started in 2007 with the vision of the documentary "Message in the waves" by Rebecca Hosking, a cameraman for the BBC, which is clearly visible damage caused by the plastic, especially the bags, environments and animals that are far from us. I was shocked by the data on deaths of animals, about 100 thousand each year, resulting from the closure of the bags. For this reason we decided to turn to public administrations, local associations, voluntary groups and also individuals present on the national territory to spread the habit to always carry a reusable shopping bag over and over again, each time instead of using a plastic bag which then becomes a waste».

Such mechanisms are subject to the campaign you have designed? How do you intend to involve your target, the consumers, in action?
«Our intention is educational. We try to change a habit consolidated for years, informing the recipients about adverse consequences of their actions. We want to act on a small daily to determine major changes. This is driving people, without forcing, along a path of choice alternatives. The citizen is more willing to change harmful behavior when it can give meaning to his personal efforts, their logical place in a common design in which the objectives are clear and shared».

We saw on the website that the campaign works with the small reality and the choice to involve massive the schools and the local government seems to be winning. But one of the major stakeholders of the campaign is a great distribution, a reality from which most of the disposable bags placed on the market. How you intend to involve in your work?
«We contact us personally every responsible for supermarket, not without difficulty because these contacts most often are “armored ". We ask them what they are doing to reduce the impact of plastic on the environment and present our campaign. With the”big distribution” we try to prevent them from pass simply at the bioplastics. Action is not desirable in this sense because they do not tend to educate individuals. We propose, however, initiatives in this direction, as for the fruit and vegetable sector where the consumer is forced to choose a plastic bag. We propose instead a bag of organic cotton, which is certainly more environmentally friendly. We are satisfied that the big supermarkets are beginning to move. I think about Carrefour’s reusable bag or about Coop with detergents without box and not just».

For those who want to learn and participate actively in the initiative can be found at the site campaign a bag for every occasion.
Particularly exciting is the web section dedicated to the proposals of manufacturing: paper, creative suggestions and recommendations for the transport of objects.