A new version of the Cenerino ashtray was presented today, Tuesday November 10th, in Milan. After the first releases, in 2006 and 2008, CIAL and Comieco (Italy’s national consortia for recycling of aluminium and paper and card, respectively) are once again offering a recycled aluminium and card ashtray for use on the street, to be distributed to 3000 bars and cafés in the city to replace of the old, worn-out ashtrays – which will, of course, be recycled!
The initiative, promoted by the City of Milan and Amsa a2a (the city’s waste management company), is one of many projects offered as a reward to the people of Milan, who are particularly good at recycling, as the heads of the CIAL and Comieco consortia noted in today’s conference.
The initiative was made possible thanks to the participation of the company JTI.
“Cenerino is a concrete example of the important results achieved with aluminium recycling in Milan,” noted CIAL General Director Gino Schiona. “Using the beverage can as a unit of measurement, we can say that we recycled more than 120,000 beverage cans to make 3000 new ashtrays, demonstrating that citizens’ participation and proper waste management can produce benefits for the environment and for the economy of the entire community.”
“The numerous requests we received to make more Cenerino ashtrays offer further proof of the great sense of civic pride of the people of Milan, who consider decorum and cleanliness increasingly important in their city,” noted Comieco General Director Carlo Montalbetti. “Cenerino is a concrete example of this new sense of civic pride, because it not only helps keep the city’s streets clean but is made out of paper and card collected for recycling in the city: each ashtray contains about 2.5 kg of recycled card, equivalent to 8 pasta boxes, 2 big cardboard boxes, 2 paper bags, 3 newspapers or 1 magazine”.
“Amsa’s door-to-door recycling system has made Milan a model of waste management in Italy and abroad. More than 53% of the city’s wastes are recycled: a significant amount, one of the highest in Europe for cities with a population of more than one million, inspiring us to do more and better. Cigarette butts might seem like a marginal issue, but this is not really the case,” noted Mauro De Cillis, Amsa a2a Operations Manager. “It takes up to 5 years for a cigarette butt to break down completely in nature, meaning that simply throwing them away is a bad habit that we need to get rid of, and we’re sure that the campaign will get positive results thanks to the sensibility and civic pride of the people of Milan.”
Over the next month 3000 cafés and restaurants will receive the new recycled aluminium and card ashtray. Here is a photo gallery in which it is depicted, along with some pictures taken at the press conference held today at City Hall in Palazzo Marino.