Spazzatura e Riciclaggio

Trash and Recycling. Lucca, and perhaps all of Italy,, RECYCLES in a big way generating only a little household trash. What’s a tiny medieval town to do with narrow winding streets with barely enough room for cars, bikes an pedestrians? Sidewalks are an after thought, and then only a suggestion. Where to put trash cans? And small apartments with no yard - only balconies if lucky - where to empty the trash? And what about the landfill? The Answer is a fairly sophisticated do-it-yourself system. Everyone separates “trash” into 5 containers at home: Paper & Cardboard, Plastic & Metal, Organics (compostable), Glass and the smallest container of all (1 gal pail) is for “Indifferiziato” true trash to the landfill (see extra photo). Everyone is responsible for depositing their separated recycling/trash into the community bin. Such a bin is within easy walking distance no matter where you live. These things are discretely placed all over the town. Each household has a card that is scanned to unlock the appropriate bin in order to deposit recyclables/trash. Italy has leapfrogged ahead of California and US certainly in community ecology action.