Giuliana: At 82, she collected 12 cigarette butts in a week.

An energetic and active woman, despite her age, capable of cleaning up Varallo Sesia, a small town in the province of Vercelli. And of teaching her fellow citizens a lesson.

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Peter Bonetti

Up at five in the morning, sneakers, sportswear, crutches, and prosthetics. But Giuliana De Gobbi, 82, doesn't go walking to maintain her health as an elderly and frail person. She does something else. And she doesn't waste a second of her day, offering a powerful and concrete example of civic duty. Giuliana picks up cigarette butts left on the street by other citizens. Uncivilized, unlike her.

Giuliana, 82, collects 12 cigarette butts in a week.

The setting for this beautiful story is the town of Varallo Sesia, a tourist destination in the province of Vercelli. Giuliana frequently complained to the municipal offices about the lack of cigarette butt collection, not only in the center, but also on the outskirts and along mountain trails. Never receiving a convincing response, she opted for a direct solution. And for an entire week, in March 2023, she went every day, leaving at 5:00 a.m., to collect cigarette butts scattered everywhere. The end result was frightening, given the quantity of cigarette butts recovered in such a short time, and astonishing, given the significance this gesture could have if emulated. In seven days, Giuliana cleared her town of over 12,000 cigarette butts. She also conducted an empirical study of the places where environmental damage is most concentrated: at bus stops and on sidewalks, where cigarettes arrive from pedestrians and car drivers who throw them out the window. After the collection, Giuliana went to Mayor Pietro Bonetti and handed him the bags containing the 12,000 cigarette butts. Perhaps other citizens will follow her lead, perhaps even convincing others to be more civilized, in everyone's best interest.

PHOTO SOURCE: Facebook

THE STORIES OF THOSE WHO ARE COMMITTED TO COLLECTING CIGARETTE BUTTS: 

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