Vatican doubles green effort
with waste recycling
 |
| A view of a section the Vatican Gardens from the copula of St Peter's Basilica |
Vatican City has its own system of collecting and recycling
its sorted waste, much of which goes into making compost.
By Robin Gomes
The Vatican is growing greener, making strides in heeding to
Pope Francis’ call to creating a more environment-friendly world. The
smallest state in the world is now ready to do away completely with the sale of
single-use plastics, or disposable plastic, according to Rafael Ignacio
Tornini, the head of the garden and cleaning services of the Governorate of
Vatican City State.
Recycling waste
The Vatican is also moving fast along Europe’s stringent
standards with regard to collection and disposal of sorted waste, he told Ansa
news agency.
He explained that a dumping centre was created in 2016 for
special waste disposal inside the Vatican, called “eco-center”. It was
restructured and enhanced in 2018 and can now handle about 85 items of the
European Waste Codes (EWC) list.
In the first 6 months of this year, the centre collected 2%
of unsorted waste, or 98% of sorted waste. The target is to reach point
zero percent in 2020, Tornini said.
As regards urban waste, he said, the Vatican started with
35% of sorted waste in 2016. Today this stands at 55%. In the next
2 or 3 years, they expect to reach 70-75%.
Vatican City’s garbage, to the tune of some 1000 tons, is
collected largely from bins, very little from door to door, such as with
cooking oil and kitchen waste.
Five months ago, with the collection of organic waste, the
Vatican kicked off what Tornini described as the “circular economy
chain”. This consists of recycling organic waste mixed with a large part
of pruning, cuttings and mowed grass from the Vatican, which amounts to as much
as 400 tons, to make compost soil.
Tornini said they try to minimize as much as possible the
amount of waste disposed of in Italy. They are trying to recycle much of
the Vatican’s waste possible into good fertilizer for use in the Vatican or at
the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. Tornini said that other
wastes are disposed of through a private company keeping to regulations as much
as possible.
Plastic
The head of the Vatican’s garden and cleaning services said
the problem of plastic is real. They are trying to collect plastics
separately and the Vatican has limited its sale of single-use plastics and soon
it will be completely stopped.
Unsorted waste collection is a problem particularly in St.
Peter’s Square which is open to vast numbers pilgrims and tourists from all
over the world. Tornini and his team have set up bins for plastics in the
colonnade that collects some 10 kilograms per day.
Tornini and four others in the department said it was as
real task to change the mentality in the Vatican, even providing courses to
people handling special waste. He said they have taken to heart very much
the call of Pope Francis in his 2015 environmental encyclical “Laudato Sii”, to
safeguard our common home.
Before Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor
St. Pope John Paul II have also a given boost to the Vatican’s green effort.
Both of them have made appeals for the protection of the environment.
Lighting
A major step in this line came in 2008, under Pope Benedict,
when the Vatican switched on its massive solar power plant on the roof of the
Paul VI audience hall. The system’s some 2,400 photovoltaic panels
covering the 5,000 square meter roof provide clean energy for the needs of the
hall and several adjoining buildings.
In January, a new environment-friendly and cost-effective
LED lighting system in the interior of St. Peter’s Basilica was
inaugurated. The German light company OSRAM behind the project, had
earlier installed similar lighting system in the Sistine Chapel and in St.
Peter’s Square.
Efforts are on to expand into other renewable sources of
energy in the Vatican. (Source: ANSA)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét