“Trashy” Sustainability: Conserve Your Waste!

By Kate Krehel, Sustainability Ambassador

“These last few days before winter break is time to throw out your trash – let’s make sure it gets to the right place.“

Florence is a vibrant city, full of beautiful culture, impeccable cuisine, and brilliant history. The birthplace of the Renaissance seems to have it all – and within its bustling chaos, environmental concerns remain a prevalent issue. Indeed, it comes with every city, but especially for one with so many tourists and locals alike, coming and going and living within the city center; waste in all of its kinds is bound to be plentiful. As plastic degrades incredibly slowly and landfills continue to harm environmental spaces, this problem has steadily been growing all around the world, especially in urban areas. 

These last few days before winter break is time to throw out your trash – let’s make sure it gets to the right place.

Luckily, Florence has developed a waste-management-renaissance of its own! Its commitment towards reusing and recycling as much of our waste as possible is prominent in their garbage collection practices. There are 5 categories you can place your waste in to ensure as much can be recycled as possible. It may seem complicated at first, but it’s easy to quickly get used to! 

So what are these categories?

Florence has four main trash bins for four main waste categories, but there are 5 in all. Each area may have four or all five bins available for use, so it depends on what is accessible to you where you live. Each are represented with different colors: 

1. Recycling – Imballaggi e contenitori (blue). There are many things you can recycle – plastic bottles, along with tetra pak (milk/juice carton), yogurt, and metal containers. Make sure they’re empty and as clean as possible before throwing them in this bin. In some areas, glass waste is also included in the recycling bin. In other areas, it has a separate collection bin all of its own. 
2. Compost – Organico (brown). This is for extra food waste! Any food, along with paper towels and napkins, can go in here. In addition, any containers that say they’re compostable or biodegradable (like various egg cartons, for example) can be put in this bin. And make sure to use biodegradable garbage bags for collecting this waste! 
3. Residual waste – Residuo non Differenziabile (gray). This is where you’d put anything that doesn’t fit in the other categories. Things like plastic cutlery, sponges, disposable razors, used tissues, rubber gloves, etc. can be placed in here. However, don’t put used electronics or batteries in this bin; instead, keep them until the end of the year, as Autumn collects them so they can be properly disposed of. 
4. Glass – Vetro (green). This one’s pretty self explanatory. There’s a separate, smaller bin for any glass you may need to throw out. 

Then there’s paper, or Carta (yellow). Paper doesn’t have a respective trash bin outside; just leave it by the door in a paper bag or cardboard box. It should be taken out on the day and time paper is collected on your street. “Paper” defines anything made of paper or cardboard (NOTE: Milk containers should NOT go in this pile! Nor should receipts, which go into residual waste, as they have a chemical component that makes them unable to be recycled). Make sure paper products that may have had food on them, like pizza boxes, aren’t too dirty – if they have a lot of residue, place them in the residual waste bin instead. 

Make sure all your paper trash is consolidated neatly; this way, it’s easier for the collectors to take it all efficiently, leaving the city cleaner!

Why is separating my waste important? Am I really helping the environment by doing so?

Yes you are! Separating one’s waste is one of the easiest ways to be environmentally friendly and make a big difference! 

When you compost, you contribute to richer soils and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When food waste enters landfills, it breaks down and releases methane, a chemical with a warming effect 34x greater than CO2! This methane reaches the atmosphere and greatly contributes to the warming climate. Returning this organic waste back into the soil, however, fills them with healthy nutrients to help plants thrive, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers. It also improves its ability to retain water and its tendency to erode. And it does all this whilst preventing that pesky methane from reaching the atmosphere! 

Composting one ton of waste reduces the same amount of emission a car would release in 2 months. And a ton may seem like a lot, but composting every day adds up! Continually throwing food waste into the compost bin is an incredible way to reduce greenhouse gas in the atmosphere whilst improving our soils for the betterment of plants – many of which we consume. 

Recycling is a great way to reduce emissions too! It’s important to remember that the Earth has a finite amount of resources, meaning reusing goods like plastic bottles to create new products ensures that we conserve them and don’t utilize extra energy to extract those resources. The entire process of finding, extracting, and processing materials from the environment emits much more CO2 than the process of recycling. If a plastic bottle finds itself in a landfill, it stays there forever; if it ends up in a recycling bin, it has the potential to reduce climate change through conserving energy and finding a second life for itself as a new product. 

“Florence and its innovative waste management system provides its residents with an invaluable opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint and assist the environment through a simple, daily task.“

And don’t forget about glass or metal cans, especially aluminum! These materials can have an even greater impact on emission reduction if they’re recycled. And recycling old electronic products and batteries by bringing them to a waste collection center also greatly helps. Many of these products contain harmful metals and chemicals that, if left to sit in a landfill, could become hazardous to human health. Recycling them responsibly eliminates this danger, and allows many of their parts to be reused, thereby reducing emissions even more!

So, you may not think of recycling and composting as a big deal – hell, it’s just a bit of trash being thrown away – but in the long run, it makes a huge difference! Florence and its innovative waste management system provides its residents with an invaluable opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint and assist the environment through a simple, daily task. So take part in this great opportunity to contribute to sustainability without even leaving your home; it may not seem like much, but every bottle and piece of food really counts for our planet’s well-being. 

You can find more information on recycling and composting here and here. For more information about Florence’s waste management system, you can visit this link.

---

See what else Marist Italy is up to at the links below…