Critical Incident - IS ITALY A GREEN COUNTRY?

Is Italy a green country?

in November I travelled to Italy and one of the things I noticed is that they do not recycle at all. They only have one bin in the whole house –my travel companions noticed that too- and the streets were really dirty. I tried to come to some hypothesis of what could be the reason this was so shocking even though we are such similar countries in other aspects.

My first thought is that they did not recycle but when I asked my partner she answered that they indeed have been recycling since 2014. Actually, I did some research and in a Swedish guy blog I found out that they even get a tax relief calculated by the quality of their recycling for the ones that do recycle, which is an amazing way to get people to start doing it. So maybe it was me that only saw one bin and they did have several for different products. In my country for example the average Spanish  home has at least four different bins: the organic one for food and kitchen paper, the trash, the container and the glass one and of course we have one in each bathroom, in the kitchen and in every bedroom. Other stuff like batteries go to a separate place. We also have many large bins around the streets to throw away garbage; In Italy I saw a few of these. Also in some towns, like mine, a garbage truck goes to every house and collects the trash.

Also, I found it really shocking that they used plastic glasses –Some families even used plastic plates- to eat at their homes. In Spain we are used to always eating with porcelain or glass plates and glasses, we clean them and use them again but in Italy they just threw the glasses and used a new one every day which is really bad for the environment because it is a waste of plastic and it is a  material that pollutes a lot and it’s  really difficult to decompose.

Why could it be that they use plastic plates and glasses?

1. They don’t care/don’t know the impact it has in the environment.
2. They don’t want to wash the dishes everyday so this way it’s easier.
3. They think the plastic is a prettier material.
4. They are rich and can afford buying new ones every day.

Answers:

1. Maybe they need to raise more awareness of the matter.
2. That’s the answer my Italian partner gave me so it’s probably it.
3. I don’t think that’s the correct answer.
4. Yeah, I’m pretty sure b it’s the correct answer.

In general I have come to the conclusion that maybe I was the one that did not pay much attention to that matter and only saw a part of it or maybe they are not really keen to recycling. I think this is a matter that was not really discussed about and I would really like to know what people from Sweden and Bulgaria thought about it and what differences and resemblances they found compared to their country.


Txell