11266 Recycling plastic bags

Could you not just either pass the buck/drop a rather obvious hint by placing them neatly beside the plastic recycling bin???

Big problem there, as recycling in Bagni di Lucca is not an easy task. Paper and glass is fine, but for the rest there are no clear guidelines. My Italian neighbour says that if it is not "recyclable" according to the instructions on the bins it is better to put them with the normal garbage.... I do not think it is quite that easy.

Maybe a letter from you and a few of your neighbours to the Comune??? Italian shops are very keen to give you plastic bags unlike the UK who now ask you if you want one and charge you if you do.

When you go shopping why not take your own bags, as most of the supermarkets charge, you save money and the disposal problem.
i'm not an enviralmentalist (or whatever they are called) but we struggle to find a plastic bag to use because we always take our own to the shops.

Stribs

I have four very large bags which I purchased from a French supermarket chain and a couple of special thermal bags for frozen/refrigerated food items, so I manage quite well and I find it easier when going to a large supermarket to take the trolley back to the car and put everything into them. The problem is when I go downtown to do some shopping and I am stuck with all those small bags. I try to recycle by using them as garbage bags, but it is not an easy task.....
I also like to help small businesses in the area by doing local shopping and I like to go to the markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays.... but if I forget the bag....
Possibly it is just a matter of training oneself. At least, I always have a small carry bag inside my handbag... The problem is when I change handbags.... I should start making my life easier and just wearing the same handbag everyday. Not a bad idea.....

Thanks so much for all the suggestions. I do of course carry my own cloth bags when shopping but find I am sometimes either not quick or emphatic enough when I present them for use in shops or market. There do seem to be more people using non-plastic bags but the problem of how to dispose of the vast quantity we have produced remains a problem everywhere. (This became sadly and dramatically apparent when the high waters of the Sercchio and Lima receded after the recent rains leaving trails of limp plastic in the limbs of trees and bushes to wave for the next millenium.)
In some cities California shops are now required by law to accept their bags back for recycling resulting in a proliferation of grocery shopping bags made of some kind of vegetable matter that can go into the compost.
If the local recycling plants cannot safely recycle loose plastic I imagine it will take regional legislation to require the introduction of more rigid standards. Or perhaps EU regulation as to pollution of waterways. . . . ?

[quote=Gala Placidia;106529]I should start making my life easier and just wearing the same handbag everyday. Not a bad idea.....[/quote]

Noooooooooooooooo:swoon:

Gala, this is Italy. You cannot possibly be seen with the same handbag everyday!

[quote=Stribs;106528] but we struggle to find a plastic bag to use because we always take our own to the shops.

Stribs[/quote]

Have you checked the second drawer down on the left of the sink?:goofy:

[quote=Sally Donaldson;106521]Could you not just either pass the buck/drop a rather obvious hint by placing them neatly beside the plastic recycling bin???[/quote]

And then we can all enjoy the plastic tumble weed blowing through the piazza! Actually, link that to your suggestion about contacting the Comune and we could be onto something. In fact I reckon someone could get elected to Mayor on a ticket of "I will solve the plastic bag crisis":nah:

They started a new re-cycling system in our village a few months ago, some of the locals were against it saying it would cause rubbish on the streets.
It's been in operation for about 5 months and seems to be working quite well.
They got rid of the big green bins they emptied every day and supplied us with small bins and sacks.
The food waste, including cooked food and bones etc would go in a degradable bag and be put out 3 times a week in a small plastic box with a lid.
Glass, bottles and tins in a plastic bag collected once a week.
Cardboard etc in a paper sack collected once a week.
Non-recycleable rubbish in plastic bags in a lidded container collected once a week.

As I said it works well and you don't get bags left next to the big bins for the dogs to get at.

Stribs

This "enforcement" of recycling (as described by Stribs) is a very double-edged sword.

So far, thank goodness, I have been spared this nasty little intrusion into my domestic envrionment. My small frazione of the comune is still equipped with glass bottle collectors, cardboard and paper containers, pongy brown bins for 'organic' waste, and the public dumpsters for general waste. (It would be nice to have a plastic container, but it's even nicer to buy the bottled water in recyclable glass - though this has become diffcult and quite expensive unless you use a restaurant wholesaler.)

Many close neighbours in neighbouring bits of the comune are forced into storing their own rubbish, sorted in special boxes, just inside their front door - because they simply don't have any other space in their apartment. Then they forget, (on the third thursday of the month), to put out the newspapers which have amounted to a quarter of a cubic metre, on the second wednesday to put out the two crates of wine bottles, and after a couple of months they either find new accommodation which they can still enter without breaking a leg - or nip down to my dumpster and chuck the whole lot into it.

Rich people who have cleaning staff who don't live in have the greatest problem - if the char doesn't come in on the rubbish days - they have to learn the difference between tins and bottles, which thay have never had to worry about in their life before. Usually, fortunately, they will be equipped with an outhouse whch can be filled up to the brim, and a private stinky rubbish remover can drop in twice a year and hip the whole lot down to landfill. I suspect many high-end apartments are simply abandoned when they get filled up, (causing a considerable health hazard to the neighbourhood).

Am I alone in thinking this rejection of the communal collection points is mistaken? Quite aside from the little recessionary problem of storing all this sorted waste? Apparently there is a significant issue for councils (or their agents) in finding space to keep scrap metal and paper, (because the contracts for raw ore and forests are more difficult to break, and thus it costs more for a manufacturer to used recycled material than to buy new).

This obsession has gone too far.

Paper is not an issue in Bagni di Lucca, on the contrary, there are special bins everywhere. But then, because of the large amount of paper mills in the area Council has an easy task getting rid of all that. Plastics in general and plastic containers is a major problem and it looks like the supermarkets keep on adding more and more of those... A good initiative by Esselunga, at least the Ponte a Moriano branch, is to have a special bin to return those containers to them... providing you remember to take them before you leave the house, together with the bags...... There should be easier solutions.

An interesting viewpoint Charles and one I partly share with you. I have always wondered why London does not adopt the Italian method of having huge rubbish bins for waste in the street, rather than row upon row of dustbins and general garbage outside the door of every flat. Although our Comune does not push the collection of plastic, we make an effort to take it to a bin elsewhere. If there is a Mercatino nearby they will take used plastic bags to wrap the junk bought by customers but no one wants used plastic plant pots.

Not every area in London Noble. Where I am, Kensington And Chelsea, we have both. Bins for non recyclable waste and one green bin for everything else. The Council supply huge unpleasant peach coloured translucent bags. They separate the rubbish in these bags. Westmisnster, on the other hand, have centralised recycling bins, and Glasgow (Hillhead) also has this scheme.

I am actually not a big fan of recycling! yes that may surprise a few people but surely its better to reuse? Its far more ecological.

Most italian shops sell lovely cloth and hessian bags so impress the checkout staff with these and improve your Italian too trying to explain why you are using them.