Think about how your trash collection goes at your house. Do you pay for trash collection? Do you have free collection or an allotted amount each week? When we lived in Sandwich, Massachusetts we went to the “dump- land fill”. You pay for a sticker for your vehicle. I believe it was $75.00/ year. This allowed you to go to the dump with your trash and recyclables. You did have to purchase special bags for the dump. You could also dispose of other items for a fee. Such a metal, appliances, tvs, mattresses, etc. etc. The good part was you could in fact bring stuff to dispose of. In Italy it is not like that. Or, not so easy to figure out. Driving through Rome on our many trips back and forth, it is evident there is a trash collection problem. Most of the dumpsters are overflowing. Many apartment buildings have trash collected outside. It does look awful and messy and grose. Thankfully, in our little village trash was not an issue. It has a schedule and clear instructions. The question is …can you figure it out & follow it?
So, how does it work in. Italy? Where do you get rid of all that crap left behind? Where do you dispose of your weekly trash? We had no idea. I rephrase, we did have an idea because we recalled the small bins we saw on our trip in 2019. When we saw the photos of our home in Italy, the owner had the 4 bins stored in the kitchen by the fireplace. There are specific colors for each. So, it’s back to learning your colors AND your days of the week….in Italian.
So we have 4 bins. Blue, Green, Grey and Brown.
Colors, days of the week, and trash….oh my! Are you smarter than an Italian kindergartener?….nope! Not us. How do you think it went for us? Well, considering we received a note on our trash bins tells you everything you need to know. Now, the trash collector did not speak english. We had tried to communicate with him through our “handy dandy google translate”. Google translate wasn’t so handy ~ never mind dandy. So I have no idea who he got to write a note for us in english….I have to assume our village people are just a little less stressed out without us there lol. They were all so kind and generous. I hate to think we stressed them out over silly things. But, it is sort of comical looking back.
You really have to learn the culture. Here, we are so blessed with conveniences such as trash collection. Even in our neighborhood in Florida, we are allowed a big huge tan barrel for trash. It’s collected every Thursday. We are also given the same huge blue barrel for recyclables, collected on Wednesday. In Italy, the bins are tiny. Like teenie tiny. Imagine we were busting out of the bins with our plastic and cardboard from IKEA. We filled those things right up with 1 wrapper LOL. We actually even made a trip back to IKEA for another round of shopping and brought with us our big cardboard box and plastic from the loveseat purchase. That would never have fit in our little bins lol.
The previous owner left more than desired. We of course had nowhere to throw it all out. But, we found out on the indifferenziato days- Tuesday and Friday….we could fill a large black trash bag and they would in fact collect it. On the poster from the Commune it shows:
A broken vase, a toy train, a plate and fork, a razor, toothbrush and cd lol. Well, we didn’t necessarily have that crap. Mike just said “we had all of those items.”. We had our share of everything else. So, twice a week we filled up the biggest bag we could find at the local Casa & Co. store and left it out the night before. Praying we were forgiven for not leaving our waste in a bag, in the bin…see. The trash collection gentleman was great and he would take our bags each week. Are you ready for your Italian lesson 101. Trash collection:
Lunedi – Monday. Vetro – Glass. Green.
Martedi – Tuesday. Indifferenziato – undifferentiated. Grey.
Mercoledi – Wednesday. Plastica – plastic. No bin use a clear bag.
Giovedi – Thursday. Carta – paper. Blue.
Venerdi -Friday. Indifferenziato – undifferentiated. Grey.
Sabato – Saturday. Alluminio – Aluminum.
Mon/Wed/Sat. Organico- food. Brown (in a bag though).
Looking back on our experiences in our little village of Poggio Nativo ~ I find it so incredible how welcomed we were. We knew nothing of daily operations to even throw away trash. One day I recall the trash collection gentleman telling Mike “BUSTA”…. a few times. Mike had no idea. He was trying to say put your food/organic in a bag in the bin. Got it!!! Without knowing the language, we still survived a month in Italy on our own. God how I miss that beautiful place! I miss all of it. The mistakes we made, the little notes left behind… just the kindness of our neighbors.
So, remember if you’re searching for your Italian dream home – remember patience. It is out there!! It will be worth it. You will love every part of the process that gives you your very own experiences.
Have a happy day!! Ciao friends.
