This is how waste collection works in Brissago. Today's innovations and tomorrow's goals

Municipal Councillor Reto Repetti and Public Works Manager Giacomo Fiscalini talk about the ‘behind the scenes’ of a fundamental service for the community

Try to imagine a town or a city district with bags of rubbish on every corner or with overflowing bins, or with rubbish and bottles scattered on the streets and in the parks... It is not difficult: we have all experienced such scenes during a trip or holiday. And if we retrieve similar images from our memory, we better understand how important an efficient waste collection service is for the community. Important for residents and, in the case of Brissago, also for tourists, who represent an important economic resource. But building an efficient service requires careful management and targeted, constant investment. Also with a view to the future.

And looking to the future, explains Municipal Councillor Reto Repetti, head of the Territory Department, the main objective is to relocate the current ecocentre - the main one located in the ai Poss area - to the former purification centre owned by the Verbano purification consortium. ‘On that land,’ he explains, ‘there are sufficient disused spaces to accommodate one large ecocentre. It is a project that is currently at a standstill, but on which we continue to work, convinced that it is the ideal solution'.

While waiting for the future, let's talk about the present: ‘In the last few months,’ continues the town hall, ‘we have upgraded and modernised the collection centres, replacing the paper, glass and PET containers and adding those for coffee capsules and batteries. We have also implemented, on the recommendation of the Canton, the collection of plastics with the Sammelsack system. In the Caregnano ecocentre, we have also installed a fence to enforce hourly access limits for users. Ideally, we would like to do the same with the ecocentre of the Schools, but from a logistical point of view it is clearly a problematic operation. Finally, we have improved and upgraded the signage of all the ecocentres’.

And speaking of problems, the Poss centre is not what they call an ideal solution... ‘In fact, that facility poses several problems,' Repetti says. ’Problems that we are well aware of and intend to solve, but whose solution passes, as I said, through the possibility of using, in a future that I hope will be near, the area of the former purification plant. It is clear that an ecocentre in the hills involves inconvenience in terms of inconvenience and parasitic traffic in the hamlets. Let's say that it is not really an ‘ecocentre’. But, I repeat, we are working to find solutions'.

From an economic point of view, the Brissago collection and disposal service is self-financing, but the situation must be constantly monitored. And there is also substantial satisfaction on the part of the population. ‘Certainly,' says Repetti, ’there are some comments, for example from those who would like to have door-to-door collection of vegetable waste. But our truck has a size that does not allow access to all areas of the nuclei’.

And speaking of trucks, a brand new one will arrive in the summer: ‘It will be more environmentally friendly in terms of emissions, and more compact, while maintaining the same amount of collection as the current one,’ explains Giacomo Fiscalini, head of the Public Works department at the Technical Office, which managed the restructuring of the collection points.

On the separate collection of plastic, which is compulsory for the municipalities but not for the citizens - a subject we have already dealt with in one of the previous newsletters - there are rather positive indications: ‘The population is responding well,’ says Fiscalini, ‘especially considering that there is no obligation to use special bags. We will draw conclusions at the end of the year'.

Both Repetti and Fiscalini emphasise a good level of compliance by the citizens, a sign of growing ecological awareness. There are some exceptions, because it would be utopian to think of the total disappearance of rudeness, but the bad habit of using the ‘black bag’ (to avoid paying for the purple one) is gradually disappearing.

In a tourist municipality such as Brissago, the volume of waste is strongly conditioned by the presence of tourists and holidaymakers during the summer season: in fact, in summer the collection takes place three times a week (also for hygienic reasons related to the temperature) as opposed to two rounds in winter. While the collection of vegetable waste is limited to once a week. Then there is the management of the ecocentres in cooperation with the companies that dispose of plastic, cardboard, glass, aluminium, vegetables, etc., which is a daily job.

The waste numbers

In conclusion, we asked Giacomo Fiscalini for some figures on the waste produced and collected last year in Brissago.

Here they are: 6.200 quintals of solid urban waste; about 1.600 quintals of vegetable waste; 1.700 quintals of paper and the same amount of glass; 800 quintals of bulky wooden waste and the same amount of demolition material; 600 quintals of other bulky waste and 100 quintals of used clothes. Finally, since the beginning of this year, separately collected plastic has already reached 4 tonnes.