At Anacapri, B&Bs and guesthouses as “sponsors of healthy soil”

Anacapri, 5 May 2022 - A blue sea and a green destination. For a small island, developing virtuous initiatives to reduce environmental impacts is an important undertaking. If that island is Capri, a world-famous paradise visited by millions of tourists every year, it is even more noteworthy. The idea is to make the tourism sector increasingly sustainable, while also serving as a forerunner for similar initiatives in other areas with comparable characteristics.

This is why, starting in the next few weeks, non-hotel accommodation in Anacapri – bed & breakfasts, guesthouses and holiday homes – will to all intents and purposes become ‘sponsors of healthy soil’ through an information campaign on the correct separate collection of organic waste.

Conceived jointly by Municipality of Anacapri and Biorepack, the national consortium in the CONAI system for the organic recycling of compostable bioplastic packaging, the agreement is part of the Isola di Capri Green Destination project, promoted by the Isola di Capri Conservancy and SDA Bocconi. The initiative identified virtuous actions and processes adopted by a number of businesses on the island that can be used as a model and implemented by business owners on Capri or other small Italian islands.

“Information will be posted in all our facilities to help our guests separate organic waste correctly, which by law must be disposed of together with compostable bioplastic packaging,” explained Paolo Staiano, director of Anacapri Servizi s.r.l. This is no small feat: there are 182 B&Bs, guesthouses and holiday homes in the municipality.

“In this way,” added Maurizio Lo Russo, Councillor for Environmental Hygiene of the Municipality of Anacapri, “we hope to achieve two goals: we will increase the quantity and quality of organic waste collected, which is then transported to processing plants to be transformed into biogas and compost. And through tourism we will raise awareness about the role we must all play in looking after the land.”

Organic waste collection is one of the most important activities when it comes to waste: it allows us to restore organic matter to the soil. This will not only benefit agricultural productivity and plant health but also helps combat climate change and prevent desertification, which is affecting more and more European territories, especially in the Mediterranean area. In addition, it allows organic waste from our daily lives to replace synthetic chemical fertilisers, which have recently skyrocketed in price due to the crisis in Ukraine.

“It’s important for the public to understand these concepts because their everyday actions can really make a difference,” said Marco Versari, president of Biorepack. “Our consortium is pleased to stand alongside local and national administrators at the forefront of efforts to provide education and shape public opinion. Italy is ahead of the rest of the EU in organic waste collection: we collect over 6 million tonnes of food waste every year, half of the EU total. And the new law, which came into force on 1 January this year, requiring all Italian municipalities to dispose of biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging (bioplastic bags, fruit and vegetable packaging, films, disposable tableware made of compostable material and drink capsules) together with food waste, will provide additional impetus. Now really is the time to spread this awareness as far as possible throughout the area: Capri's experience will be of great help.”

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Biorepack, the Italian national consortium for the organic recycling of biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging, is a non-profit consortium under private law, whose statute was approved by decree of the Ministry of Ecological Transition together with the Ministry of Economic Development, with the aim of guaranteeing the development of separate collection and organic recycling of bioplastics together with the organic waste (Article 182-ter of the Environmental Code – Legislative Decree 152/2006). It brings together more than 200 companies involved in the production of raw materials, processing and industrial use of UNI EN 13432-certified compostable bioplastic packaging, as well as the organic recycling of this packaging.                        

GREENPRESS FOR BIOREPACK 

Martina Valentini | Mobile & WhatsApp: +393389180001 | Mobile e-mail: mv.greenpress@gmail.com |