Trash(y) Photos

Trash bin at the university, no sorting

This past week we have looked at many different things involving both the cultural aspects of Sardegna as well as the waste management of the island. In order to fully understand how to improve the waste management and resource recovery system here and in other places around the world, we had to get an idea of how the system actually worked. When thinking about it, it seems quite simple. You might have a wrapper for you sandwich and once you eat that sandwich, you put the wrapper in the trash. Poof! Gone forever. Yet, how does the system itself work? Through pictures, we as a class tried to find out more about the Cagliari waste management and how it differs from ours in the USA.

Five different bins for five different types of waste.
From left to right: paper/cardboard, plastic, regular waste, organic, and glass 

One of the main things I noticed was how there are main collection bins everywhere. People must take the trash from their houses to one of the communal collection sites to throw their trash away. Most of the trash sites only have about 2 to 3 bins, one for just regular trash, and one for paper products or plastic. In larger, more populous locations, there are more bins which include the normal waste, paper products, glass, plastic, and organic waste. There is no curb-side pick up currently, but in September, the entire city will switch over to curb-side collection. I personally think that this will help reduce the amount of waste because it will allow for the waste to be of a better quality. When I say better quality, I mean that there won't be, for example, a ton of plastic bottles or paper products in the mixed trash. When there is less contamination of the recyclables, less energy goes into treating them and also higher quality products can be produced from this higher quality waste. With people being in charge of their own trash and sorting it, I think that there will be more positive benefits than not in terms of waste reduction. However, it will take some time to get used to and will involve more people working around the city as well as troubleshooting of space issues of where to put all of the bins. I also think it would be difficult to adjust to the new system as a resident. Later in the month we will get the opportunity to talk to a representative of the company that will be helping to start this new collection system and learn more about the problems that might occur and how they might solve them.

The more bins, more use. This is located in Piazza Yenne
that has many different restaurants and is always busy with tourists and locals.

Old trash can found in the plaza

People must go to a receptacle in the area in
 order to dispose of their waste

Many other items are left outside the bins

In more residential areas, a smaller version of the sorting system.
The green one is glass and cans.

Another style of sorting system

Collection truck, where frequency of collection
depends on the type of waste 

As a side note, it was funny seeing everyone's reaction around us when we immediately took out our cameras to take pictures of trash around the city. It was as if someone had throw a ball for a dog, but instead given trash to a group of engineering student in Italy.