Of course, as the resident Environmental Health Science major, one of the first things that caught my attention upon arriving in Florence was the environmental consciousness of the Italian lifestyle. Sorting your trash is mandatory, and I’m not just talking about recyclables and non-recyclables. There are specific bins for “residual”, “organic”, and “mixed material” waste; warring clans that do not mix. If you look confused about where to put your garbage, there’s usually a friendly local to help you out, keeping the carefully maintained waste universe in balance.
If your cabinets are empty after trash day, buying groceries can be explained in one phrase: “If you got plastic problems, I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 items, but bags? Just one.” While in the US grocery stores are all too happy to bag and double bag half of the store for you, here in Florence, if you want plastic bags for your groceries they’ll cost about 10 cents each. It makes you think twice: you look at your stuff, look at your total, and think, “Do I really need another bag?” I’ve gotten good at stuffing most of my purchase into one bag and throwing the smaller things in my purse, avoiding the extra plastic and saving some pocket change in the process.
Something else I’ve noticed is that in Florence, the gas-guzzler is not King of the Road. Most of the time, you can walk in the street for a while and only have to move out of the way of a couple of official vehicles (police cars, ambulances, taxis, etc). There aren’t very many private cars on these roads; instead, there are streams of pedestrians, small gangs of motorcycles, and the occasional herd of bicycles that no one takes seriously in spite of their furious bell-ringing.
Ready to live like an Italian? Recycle whatever you can, bring reusable bags to the grocery store, and try out a few alternative forms of transportation. The planet says “Grazie!”
[This post was written by Camille Goodwyn, a Sophomore studying Environmental Health Science]