Beyond the waste

by Anna de Polo

On Saturday 20th started the European Week for Waste Reduction, which will conclude on Sunday November 28. Its aim is to spread the concept of reuse intended as more careful and sensible consumption, longer product life and reduction of the wastes thrown away, through a series of local initiatives, including those coordinated by Rete Nazionale degli Operatori dell’Usato (the National Network of the Second-Hand Workers). The Network O.N.U. presents, at second hands markets and fairs of Italy, a series of events implemented by local organizations and founders of the Network: Associazione Occhio del Riciclone, Associazione ViviBalon, Associazione Bazar Project, Associazione Bidonville, Rete di sostegno ai mercatini Rom, Associazione degli Operatori di Porta Portese.

In order to raise awareness among visitors of the fairs and markets, posters that highlight the social, economic and environmental impact of the sale and barter of second-hand goods as a practice aimed to reducing waste will be posted on the banks of the market operators and they will hand out gadgets with an attached calendar of meetings of the local associations and the O.N.U. Network, starting from the States-General of the Second-Hand, that will be held in Turin on the 14 and 15 January 2011. This action-raising will take place in the historical markets of Portaportese (Roma), Balon (Torino), 29 ° Barter and Second-Hand fair (Napoli), Città dell’Altra Economia (Rome), and the people helpdesk of Quarticciolo (Rome).

On Sunday, November 28th, at the Renato Biagetti hall in the Città dell’Altra Economia in Turin, the "Report on the Re-use in Italy” will be presented, where they will speak about the state of the art of re-use in Italy and some virtuous experiences will be compared. The presentation will be organized by the Association “Occhio del Riciclone”, that was born in early 2003 with the aim of promoting the re-use and finding a solution to the emergency of waste from the point of view of people. Gianfranco Bongiovanni, a member of the O.N.U. network and an expert in environmental communications and economies linked to the popular re-use, during the presentation of the O.N.U. Network said: "the disastrous impact of environmental policies based mainly on the landfill shows the great positive effect in the reduction of items to dispose. If the operators had access to bulky waste that people bring to the municipal collection centres it would result in a reduction of the costs of recycling".

Now that we have learned to recycle, then we must learn to re-use. The practice of differentiation and recycling, despite many difficulties and the great differences between some parts of Italy and others, is becoming a consolidated habit. Some of you may have experienced a surge of consciousness when, for various reasons, you found yourselves throwing a glass bottle in the undifferentiated waste or putting plastic and wet in the same container. This discomfort, symptomatic of an environmental sensitivity that occurs in automatic and almost unconscious behaviours, is an achievement of all of us as individuals and as citizens, but also represents a new starting point. What we do to reduce the amount of waste we produce every day? This is probably a “new” question for many and a new challenge for the society, especially for a consumer one like ours. Not just recycling, therefore, but also re-use, is the message this European Week wants to convey.