Biodegradable waste of quality

by Eleonora Anello

Making people responsible, encouraging the good practises in the waste management to improve the quality and the processes of treatment and recycling. These are the main objectives of the environmental communication campaign “Umido pulito” (Clean biodegradable waste) activated in 2009 in 39 municipalities of the territory entrusted to Etra, the company that manages the waste in 75 municipalities of the provinces of Padua, Vicenza and Treviso (North Italy).

The campaign aimed to expand the exclusive use by users of biodegradable bags for organic waste disposal to improve the purity of the compost collected, encouraging them through a low price and fixed by specific agreements entered with the merchants. The communicative action so involved different actors: the municipalities; the shops and the supermarkets; the citizens and the companies that collect the compost and representing the final target.

«We wanted to encourage virtuous habits in the waste management, including control activities to promote the correct behaviours and penalize irregularities - said Selena Pajaro, coordinator of environmental communication and education of ETRA - and to do that we fully informed the authorities through a complete reporting, so that they can be applied any incentives or disincentives mechanisms and moving from theory into practice. Surely only by informing the citizen, the active subject of the harvesting process, about the fate of collected waste, can achieve better results. At the moment, we are entering the second phase of verification of the results that providing the control by operators about the fairness of the collection of biodegradable waste. Where irregularities are found, they are reported to the citizen through a yellow slip of paper that shows the type of error made. The verification will make another attempt and in case of repetition of the misconduct will be given a red card that could also include the loss of tariff reduction of waste or even a penalty. This depends from the choices of Municipality. On the contrary if the verification, as happened in most cases, thanks to our campaign, gives successful results, the administration congratulates its citizens by issuing a green card».

The citizens are no doubt a fundamental part of communicative action. And we confirm also the words of Pajaro «For us the citizen is important especially from the standpoint of the responsibility, so we believe that support a cost, like that of the bags, although lower than the market, could be to stimulate them to be more active and to do better».

This project also shows how even the alliance with the territory is significant. The campaign in fact, in agreement with the municipal administration, proposed a convention to the traders that requires a commitment at all times to ensure the availability of the certificates biodegradable bags for delivery of biodegradable waste, excluding the sale of bags without this certification or that may create confusion among users. Moreover, to appear on the site and have great visibility in all communication materials, at the seller is required to comply a maximum price for the sale, very favourable to the consumers and that encourages the regular purchase of the bags. Pajaro, in this regard, states that «The relationship is very much alive with the traders and their collaboration reflected sensitivity to the problem and interest to perform a useful service to the community».