Plastic bag free week

by Silvia Musso

In Italy during these last days, many public and private actors, institutions and businesses, schools and associations, are deciding to participate to the National Week of “Porta la Sporta” (Bring your reusable bag). Does the name remind you of something? Certainly it reminds you of the European Week for Waste Reduction. And indeed, as claims Silvia Ricci, responsible of the editorial staff of Porta la Sporta project, the structure at the base of this campaign promoted by the Associazione Comuni Virtuosi together with WWF, Italia Nostra, FAI and Adiconsum, had been suggested by the European project. Also in this case those who would like to participate must send a form to adhere and propose a communication action that will be organized during the week 17th al 24th April 2010. Specifically the main topic is the promotion of the use of the re-usable bags instead of the plastic and disposable ones. According to the organizers bringing your own bag can become something more than a simple habit, it can represent the first ecological awareness act that opens a process for other eco-friendly actions.

Public administrations, schools, associations and even the large-scale retail trade will take part to the event. The massive participation to the Week of Italian chains such as Esselunga, Simply Sma, UNES U! e U2, Despar Triveneto, NaturaSI, is something new that stressed an important change. As underlines Carlo Delmenico, Director of Corporate Social responsibility of the Simply Sma Group (more than 1,700 shops involved): «We have decided to spread this important campaign among our supermarkets, because we are firmly sure that the problem is the culture of disposable goods that the environment cannot bear anymore. With our eco-options, we intend to educate the citizen to an aware and lasting use of materials. Because it is our behavior that will make the difference».

Among the events we present the proposal of the Province of Verbano Cusio Ossola in North Italy that foresees creative laboratories of bags personalization. «Personalizing your own bag – underlines Luisa Erra of the Environment sector of the Province del – has been a way to create an affective relationship with an object, that I or my child has realized and maybe I’d like to use it and I remember to bring it with me». Moreover it will be possible to take pictures of the artistic bags and e-mail them to cucilaborsa@gmail.com. The Province will give 2 euros for every received photography to the Park Agency of Maggiore Lake to clean the natural area of the lake from the waste. An action that connects the abolishment of the plastic bags with the environment protection. «With this action we have wanted to pay attention on the fact that the plastic bags question is a general ecological problem. In the Province territory, some areas of the Maggiore Lake are the first collector of plastic waste, such as, bags, bottles, packaging etc.» explains Erra.
For the Province of Verbano Cusio Ossola as for the other participants (the complete list is available on the official website www.portalasporta.it) that often don’t have high budget for the organization of environmental communication campaigns, to adhere to the Porta la Sporta campaign permits to save money, to find material and news, to download free communication tools. Also the visibility and possibility to create a network among many actors are important aspects.