There's a new waste-collection initiative in Todi that we're having to learn. Up until now, there have been various (marked) bins for separating your personal trash dotted here and there throughout the town. The bins were all emptied every day, and essentially it centralized pickup for the trash collectors.
In an effort to increase recycling and (we think?) accountability, the system has completely changed. Each family (FAMILY, no matter the size: from 1 to infinity) is issued one compost bin and one undifferentiated bin plus a key to locked centralized recyclables containers (glass, plastic, paper, batteries). We have twice-a-week compost pickup (scheduled for early morning on Tuesday and Friday) and once-weekly undifferentiated pickup. The size of the bins might surprise you:
Because we have two bunnies whose litter boxes must be emptied (and I'm paying for a family of seven in our trash taxes, for heaven's sake!), I went and begged for an extra compost bin. We'll see if it's enough capacity.
Here's the interesting thing, though: every plastic (EVERY plastic) goes into the recycling. We're talking milk containers (not just bottles, but the laminated cardboard/foil "bricks"), magazine wrappers, medicine bubbles, you name it. This alone, of course, greatly reduces our undifferentiated load. That said, the trash collectors are serious about it: the first day of our undifferentiated collection, they ripped open our bag and refused to take it because it contained "compost" (the collection from our sink basket after washing dishes and some ant-infested items James had mistakenly placed in the bag) and plastic (some lightweight food wrappers). Citizens be warned: if you want your trash removed, it had better be only trash!
A couple of thoughts on that, though: we're supposed to put "dirty" paper in the trash; are they going to open up bags to ascertain whether the paper is dirty enough? Also, the compost removal is rather poorly timed, since it's the same day as "fish day": we have our disappearing fish shop that comes Tuesday and Friday, meaning the earliest we'd be ready for compost removal of that sort would be Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. In reality, we have to wait until the third day after fish day...we're a little worried about the stench come the third day. The simple solution is to put that in the fridge, but remember that fridges here are small! Another comment: they have gone from a centralized system by which they can remove the garbage often to a decentralized (door to door) pickup that they can only manage much more infrequently since the pickups take much longer.
As one could imagine, there is much consternation. We are taking the "let's wait and see" approach, since we welcome the discussion of environmental damage and would like to see more attention paid to the amount of waste individuals are creating.
Love,
Alexandra
In an effort to increase recycling and (we think?) accountability, the system has completely changed. Each family (FAMILY, no matter the size: from 1 to infinity) is issued one compost bin and one undifferentiated bin plus a key to locked centralized recyclables containers (glass, plastic, paper, batteries). We have twice-a-week compost pickup (scheduled for early morning on Tuesday and Friday) and once-weekly undifferentiated pickup. The size of the bins might surprise you:
 |
| The gray is undifferentiated, the browns are compost |
Because we have two bunnies whose litter boxes must be emptied (and I'm paying for a family of seven in our trash taxes, for heaven's sake!), I went and begged for an extra compost bin. We'll see if it's enough capacity.
Here's the interesting thing, though: every plastic (EVERY plastic) goes into the recycling. We're talking milk containers (not just bottles, but the laminated cardboard/foil "bricks"), magazine wrappers, medicine bubbles, you name it. This alone, of course, greatly reduces our undifferentiated load. That said, the trash collectors are serious about it: the first day of our undifferentiated collection, they ripped open our bag and refused to take it because it contained "compost" (the collection from our sink basket after washing dishes and some ant-infested items James had mistakenly placed in the bag) and plastic (some lightweight food wrappers). Citizens be warned: if you want your trash removed, it had better be only trash!
A couple of thoughts on that, though: we're supposed to put "dirty" paper in the trash; are they going to open up bags to ascertain whether the paper is dirty enough? Also, the compost removal is rather poorly timed, since it's the same day as "fish day": we have our disappearing fish shop that comes Tuesday and Friday, meaning the earliest we'd be ready for compost removal of that sort would be Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. In reality, we have to wait until the third day after fish day...we're a little worried about the stench come the third day. The simple solution is to put that in the fridge, but remember that fridges here are small! Another comment: they have gone from a centralized system by which they can remove the garbage often to a decentralized (door to door) pickup that they can only manage much more infrequently since the pickups take much longer.
As one could imagine, there is much consternation. We are taking the "let's wait and see" approach, since we welcome the discussion of environmental damage and would like to see more attention paid to the amount of waste individuals are creating.
Love,
Alexandra
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