Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Cleaner and more sustainable places with two actions: differentiate and collect

Milan, July 26 2022 – The joint action of the municipal administration and AMSA continues to raise awareness among commercial operators active on the open markets to adopt more attentive and environmentally friendly behaviors and habits. This morning the representatives of the Administration and the CEO of AMSA, Marcello Milani, met the operators at the market in via Eustachi, to present the campaign aimed at greater attention to separate waste collection in the markets. The awareness initiative will involve a total of 36 discovered markets.

Started in 2018, to date separate waste collection has exceeded 65% of all uncovered municipal markets, involving over 4.500 stalls with particular attention to organic waste, such as food waste, plants and flowers, and paper, plastic and wood.

Thanks to the additional effort of operators and AMSA, the separate waste collection system has achieved an important result which aims to make the areas affected by the weekly markets more sustainable and cleaner places, both during and after market hours, also facilitating and streamlining operations. cleaning after closing of business. In recent years, good results have been achieved with a collection method that has been appreciated by professionals, townspeople and citizens.

According to the municipal administration, the objective is now to improve post-sale conditions, with a significant reduction in organic residues on the ground and therefore in cleaning times, to return the market areas to the city even more quickly and at the same time reduce waste. 
 
"Separate waste collection in the city's open markets has been a consolidated reality for some years – explained Marcello Milani, CEO of AMSA –. This new awareness-raising activity, conceived and implemented together with the municipal administration, has the aim of always maintaining high the quality standards of the fractions that we collect separately. Thanks to the contribution of all citizens, Milan has achieved important results, confirming 63% of separate waste collection in the city and 65% in the markets. Initiatives like this are essential to spread the awareness of the benefits of virtuous waste management and further increase the share to be recovered".

To facilitate the differentiation operations, a kit was delivered to the operators, consisting of a set of 70 liter biocompostable bags and, for those who do not have them, a steel bag holder and, for larger benches, also additional rings to be fixed on the sides of the counters.

The plastic, cardboard and wooden packaging is collected simultaneously by an AMSA vehicle and taken to a treatment plant where the materials will be separated and recovered following the collection operations. At the same time, AMSA is distributing, through trade inspectors, an information leaflet which explains the correct behavior and the actions to be taken (throw organic waste only in the appropriate compostable bags, fold the cartons in order to reduce their volume, separate and stack plastic and wooden crates next to your stall and clean the area used for sales).

AMSA with its staff will also be present in the markets to provide all useful information and report any problems relating to collection.