Abruzzo is an Eco friendly place. You are expected to sort out your rubbish into certain categories. If you live in the country you then have to drive your rubbish to the bins nearby which are all offered in the different categories of rubbish.

If you live in a town you may be expected to use small bins that are provided to you by the commune. There is a different one for each type of rubbish and there are normally about 4 types:

Food waste

Paper

Plastic, glass and tins

Everything else

When we lived in town there were 6 collections a week and each day had a different collection assigned to it. Now the reason for this is that there was one guy whose job it was to collect the rubbish for the whole commune, so naturally he had to work 6 days a week to do his job. For the older Abruzzo people of Manoppello this was no problem, the bins would be lined up like soldiers each morning and they never got the wrong bin ever. But for us with busy lives and the fact that we wrote the wrong bin day on each bin in indelible ink it was always a bit of a struggle. The main problem with this system is that if you missed one week you were out. That is because the bins they provided you with were so small you could only fit a carrier bag of rubbish in each. Somehow the Italians seemed to manage, but for us it was always a bit of a squeeze. It is ill advised to put rubbish out in bags as the local dogs and cats will come and tear them open and scavenge, this happened to us many times.

Apart from these challenges the system worked well and at least they were all trying bless em.

The Decision to go eco friendly

I got really sick of foul smelling strong chemicals that burn your hands when you clean. So last year we decided to go eco friendly. We got rid of all the stinky cleaners. We replaced them with simple alcohol. You can buy it anywhere here and it costs next to nothing. We saved up lots of spray bottles and refilled them with this alcohol and then I added some drops of cheap essential oils to each of them. I use grapefruit, lemon, mint, tea tree etc. They smell divine and perfume the whole house.

We were a bit sceptical at first as to whether it would work, but thought we would give it a go. The first time I cleaned the whole house in this fashion I was amazed. The house smelt amazing, the results were great and my hands were not a bit dry. Fabulous, and with that our decision was made, we switched in definitely to alcohol. It has no effect on the environment, it is a naturally made sustainable product, it costs very, very little and the cleaning results are outstanding. It literally is the only cleaning product I buy now. I also have bicarbonate of soda in reserve for stubborn grime.

Buying eco friendly in Abruzzo.

Abruzzese Italians tend to make much less waste than Brits. The reasons for this are simple. They shop in a different way. They only buy exactly what they need, for example you can buy fresh bread literally by the slice. They buy most stuff loose and with minimal packing. For example a trip to the butcher will see you leaving with your produce wrapped in paper. Veggies are bought loose and packed in paper bags. Cheeses and cured meats again are wrapped in paper. The packaging for all stuff bought loose and fresh is very minimal.

Nothing is wasted

Abruzzo people tend to shop daily for what they will eat that day. This means very little is wasted. But if there is any waste it is fed to the dog or the chickens etc.