Italy’s Environment Ministry is coordinating the country’s participation in the first ECUD (European Clean Up Day) and in the Let’s Clean up Europe campaign launched by the European Commission. The Italian edition of the event will be held Saturday, May 10th (with possible extension up to the 17th) and CIAL will be participating in two projects pertaining to the promotion and collection of aluminium packaging: beverage cans, food tins and trays, spray canisters, caps, capsules and foil.
All these forms of packaging are 100% recyclable an infinite number of times.
The initiative, held for the first time this year, will see the participation of 28 states, including a number of non-European countries. The campaign is based on a call to action: an invitation to everyone to organise special waste collection and cleaning operations in various parts of the country with citizens’ active involvement between May 10th and 17th.
The initiative will be implemented with contributions from the Life+ programme and the support of CONAI and the industry associations (COMIECO, COREPLA, COREVE, RILEGNO, RICREA and CIAL) which provide services for collection and recycling of packaging wastes all over the country.
CIAL is promoting and coordinating two initiatives:
- CIAL and other Conai member associations in partnership with GEA Pordenone are organising a special on-the-go waste collection programme during the Annual Meeting of the Alpini in Pordenone May 9th to 11th, at which an “environmental meter” will assess impacts in terms of waste production, final disposals prevented, CO2 emissions, consumption of energy, water and raw and secondary materials and cash savings.
- CIAL will also participate in the CycloPride event May 11th in Milan and Palermo with a special project involving separate collection of aluminium packaging.
To present new proposals and participate, simply download the forms for participation in ECUD, fill them in and send them to serr@assaica.org by April 18th (links at the bottom of this article).
Participation is open to local institutions, volunteer associations, schools, citizens’ groups, businesses and organisations of all kinds.
In view of the importance of the message about fighting littering, which only too often disfigures even the country’s most beautiful spots, with consequences that are not only ugly but dangerous, Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti has said: “Citizens’ awareness of the problem of proper waste disposal and active contribution to solving it are essential for creating more liveable, modern cities capable of transforming wastes into resources for the community. The whole country needs to adapt on a virtuous level, preventing different regions in Italy from developing in this area at different speeds, with some parts of the country that are highly efficient and others that are way behind“.