Capri the first to say goodbye to plastics.
No, the initiative of the Capri Town Hall It's not because I start tourist high season on the island, the decision to ban plastics is firm and forever.
As of May 1, plastics will be prohibited in what is one of the main islands of luxury tourism in Italy. Thus, all businesses, hotels and establishments will have to say goodbye to single-use plastic cups, bottles and containers that are unstoppably polluting our planet (it is estimated that every year some 8 tons of plastic to the ocean ) .
The City Council advances to Europe, that will wait to ban it definitively in 2021 and gives all its establishments a margin of 90 days so that they can dispose of the products that they already have for sale and start thinking about sustainable alternatives . If not, Fines of up to 500 euros will be imposed.
Goodbye plastics! Hello clean beaches!
Reasons are not lacking. According to sources from the Ministero dell'Ambiente e del Territorio e del Mare, thanks to the monitoring of its beaches between 2015 and 2017, they discovered that on 64 sandy shores there were more than 770 waste for every 100 meters of beach , or what is equal to 180 thousand stranded objects.
And it is not only about the coasts, the Italian seabed is the same. “At the bottom of the sea there are bottles, food containers and fishing objects. With the law 'Salvamare' We hope to contribute to solve this emergency. It is not possible that of the 150 dead turtles , the researchers tell us that there were three out of four plastics present in his body". This is how the Undersecretary for the Environment, Salvatore Micillo, responded on the Day of the Sea, held on April 11.
The data to which he referred indicated that 150 species of sea turtles stranded in Italy , 68% had ingested plastic, with an average of 12 objects per animal.
Thanks to these measures and the work of the association Legambience , Capri will never distribute plastic again. This regulation extends to all areas, although especially in beaches and coastal areas where the measures will be more demanding.
Furthermore, this It will be supported by other initiatives such as allowing fishermen to collect plastic waste that is trapped in their nets. Although it seems strange until now they were not allowed, what is more, they could face a crime for illegal transport of waste.
This Monday the organization Legambience presented the results and waste monitoring data related to the project’ Fishing for garbage. This project carried out in Po Delta , involved the fishermen of Porto Garibaldi for 6 months. This is one of the main national experiences of waste recovery in aquatic environments.
Following the Capri announcement, Amalfi will be next and possibly the Naples coast as well.