Tag: environment

Coronavirus, plastic gloves destroy the environment – Italian Cuisine

They are often not disposed of responsibly. Similar to bags, they will soon reach rivers and seas becoming food for marine fauna. And they can also spread the infection

If they are not used correctly, they can even become a vehicle for the spread of coronavirus. And if they are not disposed of responsibly, they will lead to a real environmental disaster, with the extermination of many innocent creatures. THE plastic gloves they can be useful, but not in all circumstances and only on condition that they respect the rules for their use. This is underlined byPlastic Free association, who launched a petition addressed to Sergio Costa, Minister of the Environment and the Protection of the Territory and the Sea, which has already been signed by almost 6 thousand people.

“Do you think plastic gloves are needed if you do we touch everything? Especially when we go shopping, with the same gloves we leave the house, drive the car, touch the cart, then the phone to read the shopping list, then the shopping, money or credit card for payment. Once removed, we touch the shopping and the cell phone again without problems. Do you really think that the use of plastic gloves are really effective? ", Reads the text. Indeed, it should also be remembered that the virus survives up to 72 hours on plastic. The Higher Institute of Health (ISS) also explains this, which writes on its website that the use of "gloves, like that of masks, helps prevent infections but only under certain conditions. Otherwise, the protective device it can become a vehicle of contagion.

Yes to gloves as long as they «do not replace the correct one hand hygiene which must take place through a thorough washing and for 60 seconds, they are reciprocated every time they get dirty and eliminated correctly in the unsorted waste, such as the hands, do not come into contact with the mouth, nose and eyes, are eliminated at the end of use, for example , in the supermarket, and are not reused .

The other huge problem is their dispersion in the environment. "In most cases, their use is limited within shopping malls where at the end of use they are left in trolleys, thrown into uncovered rubbish bins or left on the ground. A gust of wind and they go everywhere, ”says the petition.

«The situation is really getting out of hand. Man and plastic don't get along, they never did. The coronavirus was supposed to make us reflect on the importance of our planet, but it did not happen. Pollution and incivility has increased, the sense of responsibility for having a better world has disappeared. Disposable plastic gloves, often similar to sachets, they are everywhere and soon they will reach rivers and seas turning into food for marine fauna. What does this mean? Environmental disaster and extermination of many innocent creatures .

The only way to "stop this catastrophe," says the association, is to stop using plastic gloves and, rather, as soon as you leave the supermarket, sanitize your hands with a gel disinfectant before touching the car steering wheel or taking the phone.

Glyphosate Alt. And the environment thanks – Italian Cuisine

The first were the cherries. Then came the melons and thegrapes, and soon it will be the turn of the clementines. All grown in Italy without resorting to four widespread and controversial herbicides with a heavy impact on the environment, including the (unfortunately) famous glyphosate, much discussed for its (suspected) action genotoxic and for the (safe) environmental impact. Extra reason to delete it from vegetable gardens and orchards, as well as Coop Italia has asked over 100 agricultural suppliers from whom it buys fresh fruit and vegetables from spinneret sold with the brand name Coop.

And it is only the beginning: by 2022 will be 35 Coop fruit and vegetable supply chains where pesticides will be progressively reduced untilelimination. A pioneering operation, which involves more 7 thousand companies agricultural of all Italy, called to change their cultivation techniques. It is useless to look for indications "without pesticides" or "without glyphosate" on the fruit and vegetables of the Coop brand sold in the 1100 points of sale of the group: for the moment do not appear, because to guarantee it is Coop, which with this move continues its path of reduction of pesticides started 26 years ago.

"The molecules that we have banned this year from Coop brand products are added to the ten already eliminated in past years based on the principle of precaution – explains the quality manager of Coop Italia, Renata Pascarelli – This is why today our supply chain products have residue of pesticides 70% lower to levels allowed by law (which are already far away from guard levels), and are often even to zero residue". How were these results achieved? And how do you give up widespread pesticides? We went to find outApofruit of Vignola, where the cherries sold (also) with the Coop brand grow.

A dangerous escalation for the environment (and health)
From the second postwar period to date the global spread of pesticides has been clear. And that of the glyphosate formidable, because it is very effective in eliminating all types of weed and why, in crops GMO, can also be used after sowing, without damaging the crops.

Which soon made it a "Blockbusters", in particular since 2000, when the Monsanto patent expired, prices fell. THE'Italy is among the first countries in Europe for the consumption of pesticides per cultivated hectare that can be found in the alimony and at the same time contaminate the air, soil and water. Above all surface and underground waters are contaminated from pesticides with an increasing trend that often exceeds the quality limits environmental.

The effects of this boom on the environment and on human health have been measured only in times recent. And they generated a profound debate at the level world with conflicting positions of the authorities for the safety food. Although the International Agency for Research on Cancer has included it among the possible carcinogens, in the EU the glyphosate is still admitted and only in the 2022 will be evaluated again by EFSA.

How to make sustainable agriculture
So, in the EU you can continue to spray the glyphosate on fields and orchards. But they are studying and trying different ways to reduce it or delete it completely. To succeed, farms must change approach: dealing with different production techniques and investing in technology, adopting what is today called "precision agriculture".

An easier step to do if, on the other hand, there is a buyer (like Coop) who puts his agronomists alongside farmers to find e to apply the best solutions, sharing knowledge and possible support for theinsertion of new technologies.

Applying the methodologies and precision farming techniques are realized crops with water, energy and time savings; an app for example can map where the is placed seed so that the subsequent processing of fertilization, irrigation and disinfestation intervene exactly where it is needed with material savings, minors sprayings and increase in yield. Coop is willing to give farmers a higher price for compensate higher expenses and lower returns due to the renunciation of pesticides. But without altering the selling prices of the products to the public.

Anti-glyphosate strategies
For reduce recourse to pesticides of synthesis there are solutions manual, agronomic, mechanical, chemical or natural. Some are futuristic and still being tested, such as i robot that weed the cultivated fields in an ultra-precise way.

Others come from past, such as crop rotation (especially for cereals) and mulching, ie the coverage of vegetable crops and fruit trees (such as cherry trees) with biodegradable sheets or compostable that protect them from insects and bad weather. Then there are the "Pesticide" from natural, like i herbicides obtained from pelargonic acid, and those "Biological", ie with less impact on the environment.

Meanwhile, the research advances, (it takes 5 to 10 years to develop a new herbicide) the new ones are exploited technologies that allow the use of treatments only when needed and only in dose needed, avoiding rain interventions. And a lot also do tools mechanical "Intelligent", as the grass cutter a metal discs with angles that can better eliminate the roots of wild herbs, and with "teeth" harder and deeper or arranged in legs of hen to be more efficient in keeping clean ground around the plants.

Notwithstanding that in some cases eliminating glyphosate seems difficult, in particular for crops grown under difficult conditions or extreme (eg on terraces) and in soils a lot stony (as happens for vineyards and legumes) or for some crops "Delicate", such as asparagus and green beans.

Manuela Soressi
July 2019

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Water houses, allies of the environment (and of our pockets) – Italian Cuisine

If in 2010 there were only 213, today their number has increased tenfold. They allow saving and protecting nature, avoiding the production of millions of plastic bottles and the consumption of carbon dioxide for their transport

They deliver chilled and controlled water, smooth or sparkling, and reduce plastic consumption. The water houses in Italy are more and more numerous: today, as Aqua Italia tells us, the association of water treatment plant manufacturers, in view of the UN World Food Day (scheduled October 16), there are over two thousand.

Water houses on the territory

The spread of these plants has been increasingly rapid: if in 2010 there were only 213, today their number has increased tenfold. The regions with more kiosks are Lombardy, which was the first to offer them, and which has 574, Lazio with 271, Piedmont with 233, Emilia-Romagna with 181 and Tuscany with 150. But the plants are more and more numerous also in the center and in the south: in Abruzzo there are 90, in the Marche 79 and in Umbria 67. The kiosks are more common in the North than in the South, and generally more in small municipalities than in the big cities.

A public water house in the municipality of Melzo (Milan).

How much you save (even in environmental costs)

Water is distributed free or at a low cost: in 36% of the plants, the cost is 5 cents per liter, for chilled and sparkling water. The kiosks draw on the municipal aqueduct: the one they distribute is safe water, which often improve further filtering any corpuscles, sand and chlorine and disinfecting it with ultraviolet lamps. They can add carbon dioxide and refrigerate it.

But the most significant contribution of the kiosks is to protect the environment: each plant, from which an average of 300,000 liters of water is taken each year, allows avoid the production of 200 thousand bottles from a liter and a half in Pet (the plastic that is used to bottle water and drinks), which correspond to 60 thousand pounds less (each bottle weighs 30 grams), and save 1380 kilos of carbon dioxide for their production and 7800 kilos for bottle transport. For the benefit of nature, and therefore also for ourselves.