Dear residents,

The path to better waste management with more respect for the environment starts from Porto San Pancrazio. We are currently completing the testing phase in changing the means of sorted waste collection, which began in 2020 and was limited to about 20,000 users in Verona. That initial step is now becoming a detailed, uniform path that will gradually involve the entire city, except for areas where door-to-door collection is already in place. Starting on November 18, the current dumpsters will gradually be replaced by new, larger containers suitable for holding the designated type of trash. Their use is reserved for local users, thus eliminating the serious problem of trash deposited by residents from outside Verona. The new dumpsters can be opened with a card, which will be issued for free, and the AMIA app, which can be downloaded to a smartphone for free, providing access to user information, AMIA services, and much more. As specified in the new waste regulation, the card must be collected under penalty of a monetary sanction. In the testing area, this measure proved to be necessary for avoiding unauthorized abandoned waste. Most residents accepted this new method with a spirit of collaboration, contributing to increasing the percentage of recycling.

The new locked dumpsters will be used for organic and nonrecyclable trash. Free access will remain for glass, while paper/ cardboard and plastic/metal will be collected with the door-to-door system according to the calendar in the pages that follow, which also contain useful information for addressing this delicate transition phase without critical events.

Moreover, this is a change – brought about by the City of Verona and AMIA – that is necessary for the environmental well-being of our land, where the average percentage of recycling in the city has stalled at a little more than 50%, dropping steeply to 40% in areas where dumpsters can be accessed freely. The goal for the city average in the next three years is a 65% recycling rate, a fundamental step that will also allow us to free greater resources for neighbourhood cleaning, to the advantage of the entire area.

Completion of the testing area anticipates the start of the overallexpansion of the waste collection system by a few months to early 2025. The change has begun and it is now time to switch into gear: it is up to all of us to make a difference. Literally. Starting a large-scale change such as this is not easy, but it is a challenge that we are seizing with determination, convinced of the importance of making a clear and decided change in favour of the environment and citizen services. Each of us – the company first, but also each person – has the honour of doing our part, implementing the services on the one hand and making small daily gestures on the other. In the pages that follow, information on how to correctly sort trash is accompanied by useful advice for reducing the use of natural resources in our regular activities, from consuming local, seasonal products to shopping with a lower environmental impact.

 

Thank you for your collaboration.

AMIA President

Roberto Bechis