A special mention

by Eleonora Anello

We underlined with pleasure the special mention "less waste" given to those who in 2008 were marked by a commitment translated into policies and practices for prevention. The awarded are the Province of Turin, member of AICA (International Association for Environmental Communication), the C.B.R.A. and GAIA SpA (also an AICA’s member).

The Province of Turin Alderman of Environment Roberto Ronco, the base of this award, among the other, in the results obtained during the last italian edition of the European Week for Waste Reduction, can tell us how, and what are the future plans of your administration?
First of all, the European Week for Waste Reduction have to become a consolidated reflection and action for the containment of waste on the consumption of resources and climate change: the Province of Turin is part of the of the 2009 Italian Edition Organizing Committee to be held again in late November. The response of our territory last year was really enthusiastic, and this year we aim to increase the effect of raising awareness, mobilizing the positive energy that we saw there are on our territory. Then there is an action that is carried out directly by the Province of Turin, the spread of washable nappies, and after the first trial was extended to all municipalities in our Province. We are also working with the Sant'Anna Hospital in Turin to see how we can add the washable nappies in maternity wards: this is the first experiment of its kind in Italy. The same system of municipal waste is, say in a natural way, consolidating the behaviors basic that allow all economic savings and reduced production of waste: from waste auto – auto-composting of food in general and of organic waste, in all reality urbanization spread (outside the metropolitan context) where this is possible. That is, let's not forget, even a fight against the wasted food: are growing initiatives to avoid that the food surplus (produced by the general markets, large retail business, school, etc..) become waste.

Dr. Massimo Padovani - Chairman of C.B.R.A. (Waste Consortium of Asti), this kind of results usually are obtained through years of work. How much has important the action of planning and implementation, including the citizens involvement, for a company like yours, which must manage the management of the integrated cycle of waste?
It 'obvious that the effective planning and implementation, that loans from the special characteristics of the area, as well as full involvement of citizens, is discriminatory to achieving such objectives. Technically it is defined by the adoption (between end of 2009 and first half of 2010) of a Integrated Management of Municipal Solid Waste specific plan, with targets for reducing quantities specific of waste, as required by European Directive 2008/98/EC. To this end we implemented an experiment in 2007 in the Valtiglione community hill and surrounding area (12 municipalities and approximately 12,000 inhabitants), which enabled us to validate on field our programming, reaching the territory of the trial the objectives set by the Plan and the reorganization of the waste collection, a RD of 70% and a head even more ambitious: about 300 kg/inhabitant/day (achieved through a strong promotion of home composting - at least 50% of households - and testing of some forms of prevention such as the use of washable nappies, the use on events and local fairs of compostable dishes).

Mauro Paracchino President of GAIA: with the distribution of 15,000 household compounder GAIA S.pA. reached 15% of Asti’s families. What is the main point to involve people to work actively on such a sensitive issue as the waste?
Need to talk to convince and thinking together with people with consistency, perseverance and some clear instrument of partnership. In our area encouraging household compound now has lasted 10 years (constant), we offer free compounder and in many municipalities the municipalities recognize a tax reduction on waste (partnership). After the distribution of the compounder we visited 200 families, selected in the sample, to see how it was the practice of composting, if actually practiced, or if they wanted to suspend the action (consistency). Coherence and consistency of the proposal are essential for an business like ours that affects aspects of daily life. GAIA has a communications department which studies and develops initiatives to stay in constant contact with our partners. As Jakobson: the channel must be open to communicate, if you do not know who to contact, if you have the feeling that on the other side there is always a different person and initiatives are spots of the moment (so many times' attention to the environment seems more a fad than a real need), beautiful plan on paper become asphyxiated in their implementation.