Catanzaro, Calabria, holds a national record for waste sorting. It's like being in Austria or Trentino-Alto Adige.

The average collection rate in 2018 was around 66 percent. This is a level typical of highly virtuous municipalities in Northern Italy. A municipal center for the collection of electrical and electronic waste. The goal is 75 percent.

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separate waste collection Catanzaro

SEPARATE WASTE COLLECTION CATANZARO

The data are increasingly positive: in about ten years the collection in Italy it is doubled. As the latest one points out Urban Waste Report drawn up by theIspra (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), we went from 28,5 percent in 2006 to 52,5 percent in 2016.

However, there is a Municipality which, with the results achieved in the area of ​​separate waste collection service in the area, is above the national average: this is Catanzaro, in Calabria, where the average for the first months of 2018 stands at 66,6 percentIn May, 65,29 percent of the waste produced in the Catanzaro area was collected separately, for a total of 2.112,54 tons.

ALSO READ: How to separate waste, waste by waste

CATANZARO SEPARATE WASTE COLLECTION DATA

Specifically, the data relating to separate waste collection went from11,95 percent of the month of December 2015 to 65,05 percent of the following December, with an average, in 2016, of 41,97 percent and 62,95 percent in 2017 (Data source: SIECO, the company that manages the separate waste collection service).

Important data that place the capital of Calabria among the excellence in the South for collection, both quantitatively and qualitatively. This result was achieved in collaboration with CONAI, the National Packaging Consortium, and thanks to the implementation of a new household waste collection service in the municipalities of Catanzaro and Gimigliano, which has allowed us to reach almost 100 thousand inhabitants in just under 8 months.

The objective, as the mayor underlined Sergio Abraham During the data presentation conference at Palazzo de Nobili, the seat of the Municipality of Catanzaro, the goal is now to "reach 75 percent within a year."

TO KNOW MORE: Door-to-door waste sorting: what it is and how to do it correctly.

CATANZARO MUNICIPAL COLLECTION CENTER

A goal made possible also by the activation of the Municipal collection center where citizens can dispose of bulky waste and electrical and electronic waste but also exhausted oil, used clothing, batteries and accumulators and expired medicinesThe Center is open every day, including Sundays, to meet the needs of citizens.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO SEPARATE WASTE CORRECTLY

Separating waste correctly is essential: not only are important materials recovered that can be recycled and reused for the production of new objects, but the environmental impact of various wastes is also reduced, especially highly polluting ones. And then, the more separate waste collection increases and the more citizens save. 

But how can we explain the success of Catanzaro, which is not far from many other municipalities in the same region, Calabria, where recycling doesn't even reach 30 percent? From what we've said, the main factor is the local administrative policy who made the right interventions. Door-to-door collection works, simplifies citizens' lives, and reduces waste disposal costs for the municipality. The same goes for the island dedicated to bulky waste, electrical and electronic: here too a targeted choice, the identification of an ad hoc area, has removed the risk of separate waste collection in Catanzaro being "contaminated" by unsuitable waste. Then, of course, the success of Catanzaro is determined by the individual behaviors of citizens, theirs civic sense, and active collaboration, in everyone's interest, especially when it comes to collective issues, such as waste disposal. The fact that this is happening in a municipality in Calabria, among other things, disproves a common misconception: that in the South, it's impossible to achieve results similar to the good administrative practices of the North. A lesson not to be forgotten.

The project is competing for the 2018 edition of the Non Sprecare Award. To learn more about the competition and participate, go to here!

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HOW TO DO WASTE SEPARATE COLLECTION PROPERLY:

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