Italy Bans Plastic Bottles!

Well...*part* of Italy has banned plastic water bottles - the Cinque Terre (Five Lands) scenic region on the country's northwest coastline. Cinque Terre is recognized on the Unesco World Heritage list of environmental and cultural conservation sites, and the Italians want to keep it that way.

They say that tourists leave behind THOUSANDS of plastic water bottles that topple from the steep terrain and end up on their limited beach space (....and most certainly contribute to the yet-to-be quantified Mediterranean Garbage Gyre) - so the have banned plastic water bottles from the region and have gone so far as to offer low cost one litre metal bottles for just one Euro - complete with the Cinque Terre National Park logo. Nice!


If you've ever actually been to Italy (well, at least the southern part), you may ask "Oh, they finally noticed the trash that is strewn everywhere without regard to aesthetics or environmental health?"...but the Italians estimate that in August alone (when ALL Europeans go on holiday...usually to the warm beaches of Italy), the CT area is trashed by as many as 400,000 (400,000!!!) carelessly discarded plastic water bottles. That's a lot of frikkin' bottles by anyone's count.

Nice move - setting the pace for the rest of the world's special areas! Read more about the savvy move in the UK Telegraph.

We say, MOLTO BENE...THAT'sss AMORAAAAAAAY!

Pilots Punish Plastics!

The University of Portland (Oregon...mascot: Pilots) have smartly decided to 'can' the bottle, so to speak - they are BANNING SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BOTTLE SALES on their campus!

With nearly 4,000 combined students and faculty, UOP is making quite a statement.

Sez the Prez: “The University of Portland takes seriously its commitment to being a good steward of the planet,” said University President Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C. “This will not only reduce the amount of waste generated on our campus but will help focus attention on the critical issues of sustainability and water rights.”

We can hope that this kind of forward thinking will spread to other lernin' centers across the USA - better yet, we can press for it. Are you a college student? Are you a member of your school's "enviro" club? Are you willing to press to get rid of single-use plastics from your school...forever? Visit the campus president, and tell her/him that they can save $$$ with reduced trash removal, get positive press in the news, Go Green, do-the-right-frickin-thing, etc, etc, etc - there are a zillion reasons why eliminating single-use plastics from schools is right, and worth fighting for. Write a letter to the campus newspaper - let 'em know what you think!!

Campuses, with their specific and transitory populations, generate a lot of food-related garbage, but more importantly they are in the business of influencing and shaping the flexible minds of its member students. The good Reverend Beauchamp's words and actions are indeed commendable - hopefully the message will be carried by his students all along their life's paths.

UOP ROCKS! Check out their Sustainability page. A college sustainability page - NICE!