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ROME – Polystyrene packaging, colored paper and ribbons, greeting cards, cardboard and plastic wrapping: Christmas, every year, also brings with it a lot of waste to be disposed of. To make a gift to the environment and experience this anniversary in a more 'green' and sustainable way, you need to be well informed about the correct disposal of all materials, so as not to fill the waste bins and avoid abandoning waste on public land , initiate the correct recovery of waste as much as possible, improving the quality of separate waste collection. On the occasion of Christmas, Hera recalls some tips for living these holidays in the name of sustainability.
'IMMATERIAL' GIFTS
An ever-increasing number of people are favoring 'intangible' gifts, such as subscriptions, top-ups, contributions to charities.This reduces stress and at the same time reduces waste production.
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AND GIFT CARD
Every year we discover that some rows of colored lights, which once embellished Christmas trees, nativity scenes or the outside of homes, no longer work. If they are no longer usable, home 'lights' become WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) and must be taken to the ecological station.
The colorful gift card, however, goes into the gray container of theundifferentiated, as well as the ribbons and bows that decorate the gift packages.
CHRISTMAS TREES
Rootless fir trees, which can no longer be transplanted, can be transformed into excellent fertilizer to be reused in agriculture.Hera therefore invites citizens to give them to the ecological station. If the green waste collection service is active in your municipality, you can also request free home collection by calling the toll-free number 800.999.500, active from Monday to Friday from 8am to 10pm and on Saturdays from 8am to 6pm.If present, they can also be placed in vegetable waste bins (cuttings and prunings), obviously reduced to logs to limit their volume. However, it is essential to prevent them from ending up in unsorted waste bins or, even, that they are abandoned near waste collection containers.
Synthetic Christmas trees, if no longer usable, must be taken to ecological station.
ORGANIC WASTE
They correspond to approximately 30% of all waste produced;where there is a collection service, it is necessary to place them in the organic waste container.Alternatively, they can be reused through the use of a composter, a container that transforms organic waste (meal residues, grass and foliage) into fertilizer through a natural degradation process.
WASTE OILS
These are the frying oils, those contained in pickles (vegetables or tuna); they must be collected separately and placed in the appropriate street containers or at the ecological station. The used vegetable oils for domestic use recovered by Hera are sent to the Eni biorefinery in Porto Marghera, to be used for the production of hydrogenated biofuel, as part of the circular economy framework agreement signed between the Hera Group and Eni.This fuel then returns, in a circular way, to being a resource and becomes the power source for various vehicles that Hera uses for the collection of urban waste.
CARDBOARD, GLASS, PLASTIC AND CANS
Boxes and cardboard packaging must be reduced in volume and thrown away together with the paper.Plastic or polystyrene packaging should instead be placed in the yellow containers designated for their collection.If it comes to large packaging, their destination is the ecological station.NoIf they are dirty, however, they must be disposed of together with the undifferentiated waste.
Empty glass bottles must be placed in the appropriate containers:the green road bells.Please remember that glass is a material that can be recycled infinitely.Cans and jars that have contained drinks or canned foods should, however, be rinsed and thrown into the plastic collection container.
OLD ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
At Christmas it often happens that we receive (or donate) cell phones, PCs, PDAs and televisions that replace the previous ones.Before considering them WEEE it is advisable to check that the equipment already used is reusable and give it to anyone who may need it. Alternatively they must be delivered to the Hera ecological stations present in the area, where they are sent for recovery.
These devices, in fact, they contain metals such as lead, cadmium, gold, cobalt, resources that are exhaustible in nature which, through separate waste collection, can be recovered and reused.Metals are entirely recyclable:they can be used several times, reducing new extractions and the environmental impact of the transformation of virgin materials.
FOR EVERY DOUBT, THERE IS THE REFUSALIST
In case of doubts about the correct disposal of waste, you can consult the Waste Specialist at the address www.ilrifiutologo.it, the app downloadable for free from all stores and integrated with Alexa, Amazon's artificial intelligence that now it can also tell us which container to throw each piece of waste into or tell us the nearest ecological station. The Waste Specialist contains detailed information on the management of each material, it is possible to search for waste by writing the name of the product to be thrown away or even by photographing its barcode, it is possible to send directly to Hera photo reports of abandoned waste, broken or overfilled bins and Thanks to GPS, it is possible to locate the nearest ecological station.