Rome Recycles!

In my hometown, in the good ole’ U.S.A., everyone recycles. We recycle our paper, glass, metal, plastic, yard debris and food waste. We are even able to recycle paper towels and used pizza boxes with the food waste –and- our city banned Styrofoam take out containers, so many restaurants use compostable containers, which can go into the food waste bins as well!

We recycle our clothes. We have clothing exchange parties, we give clothes to friends and we donate clothing to charities. Our tennis shoes are recycled, via the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe program. Nike grinds up the shoes and makes new sport surfaces – running tracks, tennis courts and new playgrounds. Patagonia and Hanna Andersson have clothing recycle programs as well.

We also have specific locations for recycling hazardous materials or items that aren’t able to be recycled through the city program. We’re all proud that our actual garbage bins barely contain any waste.

Then we move to Rome. Every bit of our trash was put into the garbage bin. It was an awful shock! Our plastic water bottles, our metal espresso cans, our fresh pasta clamshells, everything, in the garbage. All of a sudden, we felt the enormity of the waste we were producing on a daily basis and a cloud of guilt settled around us.

We asked Sabrina and Katia, of @Home (our wonderful property agents/problem solvers/guides to our life in Rome) if they were aware of recycling programs. They assured us, yes, some neighborhoods had it and we’d have it before too long.

That brought us a bit of relief from our guilt, so we began sorting out our glass and plastic, just to make ourselves feel like we were making some kind of contribution. Maybe it would be sorted somewhere? We also starting storing paper bags, for the day they would be able to be recycled.

Notices went up mid-November in our building that beginning December 1, our very own recycling program would begin! AMA delivered - door-to-door - containers, color-coded bags and a pamphlet outlining items that could be recycled. Oh joy - the cloud of guilt has cleared! It’s kinda like being back in my hometown!