Milan ranks second in Europe for waste sorting: smart bins are coming soon.

MILAN SEPARATE WASTE COLLECTION DATA

Milan at the forefront in Italy as regards waste disposal waste and recycling, and second in Europe immediately after Vienna. And not only that, reaching the 54 percent quota of separate waste collection has led the Lombard capital to attract the attention of the environmental department of New York who reached the city specifically to study "the Milan case" and try to replicate it in the Big Apple with a very specific goal: to eliminate waste production by 2030.

ALSO READ: Electrical waste collection is booming in Milan, with a 32% increase in seven years.

THE REASONS WHY MILAN IS FIRST IN ITALY 

But how did Milan achieve this incredible result while Rome, the capital of Italy, is increasingly plunged into a waste crisis due to inefficiencies and excessive waste? First of all, thanks to a strong educational commitment and strong technological innovation.

SMART BINS FOR SEPARATE WASTE COLLECTION

By 2018 in Milan in fact, 15 thousand "smart bins" equipped with chips will be installed so that they can be monitored remotely to know, in real time, whether they are full of garbage and need to be emptied or if problems have occurred that require the intervention of the waste management company. A gradual but also quite recent change has occurred in Milan: for example, in 2012 the percentage of separate waste collection was 32 percent, the following year, with the start of the wet waste collection, the figure rose by more than twenty points. A turning point in the Lombard capital which affected each house, with a door-to-door collection which allowed the elimination of dumpsters from the streets. This also benefits the aesthetics of the neighborhoods, improving the quality of life in the city. All this demonstrates that it doesn't take years and years of work to achieve excellent results, but commitment and perseverance.

ZERO PLASTIC IN MILAN SCHOOLS

And yet: Many schools in Milan have joined the ecological challenge "Zero plastic in the canteen" to eliminate disposable plates and replace them with washable dishes.And for the next school year the goal is to use tableware made with biodegradable materials such as corn starch, which, after use, would go directly into the organic waste collection.

SEPARATE WASTE COLLECTION IN DISTRICT MARKETS

And in the local markets, to avoid, once the stalls are closed, the presence of wooden boxes and inedible fruit abandoned on the street, a project is planned that includes training sessions for operators and staff, with flyers also in Chinese to explain how to proceed with separate waste collection.

FABRIC RECYCLING

Small big steps that make it increasingly reachable the 65 percent target of material collected, separated and recycled, within the next 4 years. With an eye also to the recovery of new materials including "FabricsNew York, for example, recovers 6 percent of what is thrown away.

DATA ON SEPARATE WASTE COLLECTION IN ITALIAN MUNICIPALITIES

And in the rest of Italy? As emerges from some data collected by the Demoskopika Institute, waste disposal has cost Italian municipalities, from 2014 to the first 7 months of 2016, therefore in just 30 months, well 21.2 billion euros, equal to approximately 760 euros of waste tax per family. And only Rome Spending on the service contract has exceeded the threshold of 1,5 billion euros.

USEFUL TIPS FOR AVOIDING WASTE WITH SEPARATE WASTE COLLECTION:

• In Bassiano, a community composter transforms organic waste into fertilizer for the garden.
• In Lucca, waste is chip-enabled, so those who waste less pay lower taxes.
• How to build a DIY garden composter
• How to build a DIY balcony composter