Sunday, July 1, 2012

Why is Treviso so clean?

So far you have seen pictures of some of the most beautiful places in Italy. Today things are going to be pictures of garbage cans! Big, colorful and well used.
Why would I want to tell you about them you are probably asking.  When I first saw them I thought they were only for the use of the businesses in the area but turns out everyone uses them.  We also found them while walking through residential areas outside the historic centre.
This morning we went to the Saturday market for a few things.  Now this market is crowded with venders and lots of people looking for that bargain.  With this much activity you would think litter would be all over the place. I am sure it would be but the garbage bins you see below were being used by everyone.
 

The garbage must be separated according to its content as follows:
Yellow = cardboard
Brown = Wet material such as vegetable peels, etc.
Blue = Glass, plastic, metal
Green = Dry garbage such as Milk containers, broken dishes and your old worn out socks.
They are also strategically placed so that people walking down the street can also use them after finishing that bottle of sparkling water.  Very few bottles or aluminum cans are seen on the street.
From our apartment building door we have a choice of 3 different drop off sites within 100 meters. A little longer walk when you have to take the garage out but the reward is the gelato shop you can go to.

Rather than keeping your garbage for a whole week it gets taken away daily.  Very useful when the temperature gets up over 30 degrees for months at a time.  With the narrow streets smaller trucks are used.
The recycling program seems to be working very well even without cash incentives for returning soft drink and wine bottles.  We bought 6 bottles of carbonated water that were on special for €0.16 each, I am accustomed to paying more than that just for the deposit.  
You may ask if there is an odor around the garbage cans.  If you are beside one you can tell it is not "Angel" aftershave.  Luckily the odor is not strong and disappears when you are a couple of meters away.

To the garbage bins and the people who use them....well done!

2 comments:

  1. That's great they are do conscious :)
    Happy Cdnada Day :)

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  2. A very interesting system. I am so glad for them!

    ReplyDelete